We, Japanese have a deep connection with crane birds since ancient times.
The beautiful crane birds can be seen in many occasions, such as Japanese old stories, music, paintings, and so on.
Crane birds are not just beautiful but also thankful, as they are symbols of long life, prosperity and a good luck.
In Japanese phrases, we have “crane birds live a thousand years, turtles live a ten thousand years”
Also crane bird’s voice is said to reach to the heaven, as they cry loudly.
When crane birds make a couple, they stay forever and never separate.
So we symbolize crane bird couple as “good married couple”.
Especially at weddings, we use crane birds in many situations, for special wedding kimono pattern, for wedding venue decorations, or on celebratory statement.
As crane birds are grateful good luck symbols, we believe that owning something with crane bird motif will bring us a good luck and a healthy long life.
I love to paint these beautiful birds, crane birds on my hanging scrolls too.
crane birds Japanese painting artCrane birds Japanese painting Kakejiku artCrane bird Japanese painting artCrane birds Japanese painting Kakejiku artCrane birds Japanese painting Kakejiku artExtra large Japanese painting art Kakejiku crane birdFukuro obi Kakejiku style Japanese painting art Crane bird, Sakura, Koi fish
Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, the altitude of 3,776m.
It is well known not just in Japan but in the world as the world heritage site.
The reason Mt. Fuji was selected as a World Heritage Site, is not only for its value as a famous mountain of nature and beauty, but also for the faith held by the Japanese in the existence of Mt. Fuji and its value as a source of art born through Mt. Fuji.
Since ancient times, Japanese people felt divinity in Mt. Fuji and admired it as the symbol of spirituality.
They looked up Mt. Fuji and prayed.
How did Mt. Fuji become a mountain of prayer?
Mt. Fuji is the symbol of “mountain worship”.
“Sangaku-shinko ” 山岳信仰” is a faith worshipping mountains as being sacred.
So what is “Sangaku- shinko” -mountain worship?
Japan is an island country, of around 75% of the land being occupied with mountains and forests.
This fact already made people have strong connections with mountains.
In the old days, the souls of the dead who left their bodies were thought to climb mountains.
When Buddhism was transmitted, people started to believe the souls of the dead climbed the mountain and they would become Buddhas at the summit. As a result, the mountain has come to be regarded as the most sacred place where God and Buddha live together.
There are many shrines in and around mountains, and of course Mt. Fuji also has shrines called “asama shrine”浅間神社“ on its summit and around it as well.
asama shrineasama shrine
That is because Mt.Fuji is God himself.
On the other hand, Mt. Fuji is a beautiful active volcano.
There has not been a major eruption in the last 300 years since the last eruption of 1707, but it has a history of being feared not only as beautiful but also as a scary mountain.
Asama Shrine, which is scattered throughout the Mt. Fuji area, also has a deep desire to calm the terrible disaster.
In Western Europe, nature, including mountains, should be conquered by the power of God. There is a big difference from Japan, which feels the sign of God and Buddha from rich nature and thinks that the mountain is a god.
That is the reason that Mt. Fuji is very special mountain for Japanese people.
And as a source of art, famous painters and artists left behind their works that were in some way in connection with Mt. Fuji, especially since Edo period.
From folding screen paintings, fusuma paintings, hanging scrolls, the pilgrimage mandala, which is the object of faith, and as well as the decoration of crafts such as costume patterns, daily fixtures, and furnishings, countless figures of Mt. Fuji were drawn.
I myself, love to draw beautiful Mt. Fuji.
Mt. Fuji has the power to captivate a person from a first look.
drawing Mt. Fuji in SuibokugaMt.Fuji in the sunrise paintingMt. Fuji with sakura and Koi fish painting hanging scrollJapanese painting ZEN禅 with Mt. FujiGorgeous kimono silk obi belt Japanese painting hanging scroll Mt. Fuji Kakejiku art
Suibokuga (水墨画)- Japanese traditional painting art
Suibokuga is sometimes called Zen Painting.
Sumie is painting with ink.
And Suibokuga is one of Sumie painting, with the gradation of dark black to light black.
Main tool for Suibokuga, “Sumi ink” is made from mainly soot, animal glue, and perfume.
sumi ink 墨
We add a little water into an inkstone (suzuri) and rub sumi ink, it becomes dark black color.
Ink stone SUZURI 硯rub ink with ink stone
By mixing this black ink with water, we can create the gradation color of black to light grey.
mixing ink with water to make gradation colorgradation black color
In Japan, Suibokuga is not just about paintings drawn with only ink, but we include some colored paintings drawn with mainly ink and some pigments also.
Sumie: The way of painting with ink was already in Japan since Nara period (710 – 794).
And Suibokuga style was brought in Japan at around Kamakura period (1185 – 1333), then became very popular especially at around Muromachi period (1336 – 1573), as Suibokuga style paintings were deeply connected with ZEN temples.
Until 14C, the subjects of Suibokuga were humans called “Jinbutsu ga” (人物画) , and flowers and birds called “Kacho ga” (花鳥画).
In 15C, “Sansuiga”(山水画) , meaning “mountains and water paintings” became popular.
Subjects of this Sansuiga is nature, such as mountains and water falls, rocks, trees etc.
I love to paint Japanese nature and symbols in Suibokuga.
Sakura cherry trees, bamboo tees, pine trees, Mt. Fuji, crane birds, and koi fish.
Sometimes tigers and Ryujin dragon god as well.
Tigers and Ryujin dragon god are also very popular subjects for Suibokuga.
I love to express Japanese beauty with the amazing gradation of ink with some colors.
That is my Suibokuga.
Sakura cherry blossoms painting art Kimono silk kakejikuJapanese calligraphy art bamboo hanging scrollExtra-large Mt.Fuji and Japanese Pine tree hanging scroll, Impressive landscape ZEN style wall decorGorgeous Kimono silk obi Japanese painting Mt. Fuji, crane birds, pine tree wall decorJapanese painting of Koi fish in ZEN circle, EnsoJapanese painting calligraphy art hanging scroll Kakejiku wall decor crane birds, Mt.Fuji, Japanese pine treeJapanese painting Tiger and bamboo ink art kakejikuUnique tiger & bamboo Japanese painting Kakejiku hanging scrollExtra long Drago Ryujin calligraphy art kakejiku hanging scroll
Emakimono style landscape Japanese scenery painting art scroll
Japanese EMAKIMONO style hanging scroll
First of all, what is EMAKIMONO??
Emakimono – “E” means “pictures”, “makimono” means “scroll” in Japanese.
Emakimono is a Japanese traditional horizontal scroll which tells stories with pictures.
Japanese traditional Emakimono 絵巻物Old Emakimono
From right side, we unroll the scroll to the left, and illustrations tell you Japanese narrative.
So Emakimono usually is a few meters long, sometimes even 20 meters long!
The oldest Emakimono that still exists is believed to made in Nara period, AD 710 to 794.
one of the oldest EMAKIMONO
I made Emakimono style scroll with Japanese scenery painting.
Making Emakimono style Japanese scenery painting art scroll
To make this unique scroll, I used Precious Kimono silk obi belt for both ends.
It is woven with silk and making gorgeous patterns.
precious Kimono silk obi belt
In the center painting area, I used white silk kimono fabric.
white silk kimono fabric
This white silk fabric is thin and soft, so I attached Special Japanese paper called “urauchi youshi”, on the back to make it stronger and harder.
This special paper has glue on one side and by ironing, I can attach this paper to the silk fabric.
I made this scroll with 2 meters long, so this can be hung on the wall in the rooms easily.
This Emakimono style horizontal scroll allows me to draw Japanese landscape scenery.
Painting landscape Japanese scenery
I really love to draw Japanese symbols, especially Mt. Fuji, Sakura cherry blossoms, Bamboo, and Koi fish.
Those symbols express Japanese beauty, and every time I draw them, I find myself being in love with them more and more.
In the past, I painted these symbols a lot on Usual Kakejiku hanging scrolls (Vertical scroll), but especially this horizontal scroll has enough space for me to draw all in here.
Japanese calligraphy Ichigo Ichie One in a lifetime meeting 一期一会
After receiving calligraphy tools from our grandparents, I started doing calligraphy again.
Soon after, I realized doing calligraphy is a good meditation.
Calligraphy is one of the main Japanese culture, and related to our history.
In our Japanese history, calligraphy is always in our life, same as ZEN (禅), Buddhism, temples, and tea ceremony.
Tranquility, simplicity, mindfulness, humbleness, are very important elements in these Japanese culture.
Also purifying tools and taking care of each item, how you treat these tools are also an inevitable part of its culture.
When we do calligraphy, we need to pay attention to our posture.
(We used to sit on our knees on tatami mat room with our back straight, but relaxing our shoulders)
It is important to hold the calligraphy brush with three fingers properly.
Relaxing our arm, making our wrist flexible, and focus on our breathing.
We need to write in one-stroke, and we are not allowed to go back and fix the line again.
So First stroke is the last stroke.
That is why how much we soak our brush into black ink, how fast we write, how strong we put our brush onto paper, are all very important.
For example, I am not satisfied with one line, as it was not black enough and the color was little too thin, so I might want to go back and color on top with more ink.
However, if I do that, it will appear as a mark even after it gets dry, and it doesn’t look nice.
That means, we have to picture and simulate the writing in our mind, before we actually write on the white paper.
And once I start writing, there is no stopping, no going back, nor fixing.
First trial is the real performance.
This is “一期一会”(Ichigo-Ichie) “Once-in-a-lifetime-meeting”.
This one moment never repeat, everything we experience in every second, every minute is only one time.
So we have to treasure this one moment.
However if I think too much, probably I hold my brush too tight, that doesn’t give me a good result either.
So when we do calligraphy, we need to breathe deeply, empty our mind, listen to the sound of outside wind or birds(not car noise), relax our mind, and start writing.
This is the same procedure as meditation.
Of course, opening our eyes and keep writing our calligraphy is not exactly the same as meditation.
But while doing calligraphy, I find myself very calm.
Japanese culture is very sensitive.
We want to keep this sensitivity and beauty in our everyday life.
calligraphy art painting
We have learned calligraphy since we were small kids. This is not unusual, as all kids learn calligraphy at elementary school.
Calligraphy is a part of our culture. Calligraphy comes from China, same as Chinese characters “Kanji(漢字). Now we have not just “Kanji(漢字)”, but “Katakana(カタカナ)” and “Hiragana（平仮名)”.
And learning calligraphy is to learn Japanese words and meaning.
Our history is a little bit different and a little more.
Our grandfather who lived next door, was a master of Calligrapher and both our grandfather and grandmother were calligraphy teachers. They used to have calligraphy class at home and so many kids came to learn calligraphy on weekends.
We, of course, used to go to the next door every weekend, and learned calligraphy from our grandparents.
When we grew up, we stopped writing calligraphy and almost forgot about calligraphy for long time.
And this calligraphy came back into my life all of sudden 2 years ago.
We received many calligraphy tools from our grandparents.
They are almost 100 years old, and cannot do calligraphy anymore, and decided to give up all the tools they used for long long time.
Very valuable calligraphy brushes, special paperweight, inkstones, came to our house.
When I smelled the calligraphy ink, I had nostalgic feeling and remembered 40 years ago.
I started enjoying calligraphy again.
Calligraphy became a part of my life again.
This is the great way to express Japanese culture.
That was the beginning of our calligraphy art.
And I start realizing Japanese beauty from calligraphy.
