Just a brush stroke
Jul. 26th, 2010 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker[a short character sketch]
The old man who lives nearby has a little garden in front of his apartment. He's frequently outside, working on the garden, and often says hello and talks a bit when we pass.
So when we walked by the other day, it wasn't surprising to see him out in front of his apartment. But he was hanging a frame from his window sill behind the garden. The frame looked like a picture frame, but inside it was shodo, Japanese calligraphy, with two large brush-drawn kanji characters. Mitsuko looked over and said, "That's beautiful, who did it?"
He looked up, smiled, and brought the frame over. He off-handedly pointed out some features. There was a dot in one kanji, formed by pushing on the brush. And the signature, a single complex swirl of fine lines. Then he laughed and said, "I drew it."
Mitsuko asked if he taught shodo. He said, "Not anymore. My heart, you know. But I still practice, every day." He lifted the frame. "This one was pretty good, so I thought I'd put it out here."
Then he said, "Do you know the Osaka art museum and the Kyoto art museum contests for shodo? Once a year?" Mitsuko nodded, and he said, "I usually send them something. Not for the contest, just for them to use. My work -- it automatically wins, so it isn't fair to compete."
He took the frame, and went back to put it up under his window sill, in the middle of our small apartment complex.
[The End]
The old man who lives nearby has a little garden in front of his apartment. He's frequently outside, working on the garden, and often says hello and talks a bit when we pass.
So when we walked by the other day, it wasn't surprising to see him out in front of his apartment. But he was hanging a frame from his window sill behind the garden. The frame looked like a picture frame, but inside it was shodo, Japanese calligraphy, with two large brush-drawn kanji characters. Mitsuko looked over and said, "That's beautiful, who did it?"
He looked up, smiled, and brought the frame over. He off-handedly pointed out some features. There was a dot in one kanji, formed by pushing on the brush. And the signature, a single complex swirl of fine lines. Then he laughed and said, "I drew it."
Mitsuko asked if he taught shodo. He said, "Not anymore. My heart, you know. But I still practice, every day." He lifted the frame. "This one was pretty good, so I thought I'd put it out here."
Then he said, "Do you know the Osaka art museum and the Kyoto art museum contests for shodo? Once a year?" Mitsuko nodded, and he said, "I usually send them something. Not for the contest, just for them to use. My work -- it automatically wins, so it isn't fair to compete."
He took the frame, and went back to put it up under his window sill, in the middle of our small apartment complex.
[The End]
