TeaLife Audio – Episode 47 – Jiku

5 Comments

1. Hey Marius & Anthony, thanks for this episode on jiku. I recently have acquired a couple of scrolls on ebay. I purchased them without being able to read them. One was relatively easy to get help with, but the other was much more difficult. With help from some local friends and the Midorikai Facebook group the second was finally successfully deciphered. So, I love Anthony’s idea of scroll blog.

   I had a somewhat similar idea, not for a blog, but to create a catalog that collects examples of the calligraphic variants of kanji used frequently in scrolls. A Japanese friend here has a book from Japan that does this, but it is quite limited in the number of kanji that it has, and it is of course in Japanese, making it difficult for those of us without the requisite training to read that noble language.

   I made a bit of a start by collecting several images of those scrolls on ebay with readings and/or translations. Since there are often several scrolls with the same phrase on them, I thought I could crop and group images of the same kanji as a reference. I haven’t gotten that far yet. The real question I’m struggling with is how to organize it so that it is useful. Perhaps that will become a little clearer once I start to group them together.

   The other thing I wanted to comment on is the idea of scrolls in other languages. I actually have a couple of shikishi in English. A really crazy one by a friend who wrote it for a particular gathering. It is actually written backwards so that one has to view it in a mirror to read it. The other is by a calligrapher in California who has studied shodo. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name, but I’ll try to send you a couple of photos.

   Cheers,
   Scott

2. Hi Scott,

   Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you like the scroll blog. I worry if the format will be good in the long term but I think it’s the best way to start. I think just getting the information out there and searchable will help many people like you and I.

   I actually found a book recently that seems like it might help us and is in English. I will let you know how it is when I get it.

   That is awesome to hear someone has made scrolls in other languages. I’d love to see the pictures.

   Thanks,
   Anthony

3. Here’s a link to one of my English shikishi for those who are interested:

   https://goo.gl/photos/rGrVgqQc9X3dGK9N9

4. Wow! That shikishi is awesome.

   If anyone is interested in a nice collection of Calligraphy and Zen phrases commonly used in scrolls. Please check out the following book. This book is beautiful and in my one day with it I have already learned a lot and could use it as a reference to read a shikishi that I saw.

   http://amzn.to/2gkcdQE

   Thanks,
   Anthony

5. Thank you both. Great seeing your shikishi.

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