Totally unrelated to ponies in any way · 3:08pm Apr 20th, 2017
So, some of you probably know that I'm currently living in Japan, stationed in Tokyo with the U.S. military. I'm studying Japanese, and you may have seen me post some of my digital paintings here in this blog. Well, last year I started studying a new hobby that combined my love of art with my love of writing with my love of Japanese: Shodo, aka Japanese Calligraphy!
So, here's something that has nothing to do with ponies: three works of mine from a recent shodo exhibit at our base.
1. 足るを知る (taru wo shiru), "To know being satisfied."
This Zen Buddhist saying, rendered as 知足, describes the joy of simple satisfaction with one's life. The red seal is my name, stamped with a hanko.
2. 桃花春に咲く (touka haru ni saku), "The peach blossom flowers in spring."
Another Buddhist saying, rendered here as 桃花咲春. Many Japanese phrases focus on nature and the turning of seasons. I didn't get a chance to stamp this one before they had to frame it, unfortunately.
3. 恕 (jo)、"Compassion."
This is a common Chinese character that rarely appears in Japanese (my Japanese girlfriend had never seen it before). It is, by pure coincidence, the first character of my name (John) when rendered in kanji. Compassion is considered the most important human attribute in Confucianism.
Expect a new story out in a week or so.
Very cool! Also, props for the 行書. I never really managed to get good enough to do that, and it looks great.
nice. Makes me more excited for duolingo to finish their Japanese course
ah yes people always say i have 無 恕 but usually only after i'm done brutally murdering their language.
Your the second person I know who has gone to Japan to live.
The calligraphy is wonderful.
I have attempted to and failed to learn the kanji. I cant seem to wrap my poor abused brain around it.
One of these days, and I dont know how, im going to get myself to Japan. Aso-Gun in Kumamoto actually.
My grandmother is from there and aside from a rather odd family tree thingy (that is near unhelpful) and a few pictures with kanji, we know nothing of her or her family.
Mysteries
But I love your horse words and your calligraphy is just as amazing.
Best of luck with it all.
Beautiful!! I've long had an affinity for Japan, though I don't know where it comes from. These are absolutely stunning, and I love the meanings of the phrases. Hope you post more like this, or any other Japanese wisdom/adventures you document.
So, just to sum up, you decided to learn how to do another really awesome thing that you're good at.
most of us are still struggling with the one, gardez
See, this is why I love pictographic languages. As well as being generally beautiful to look at, you can deduce the meaning of an individual character if you know its components. I've taken Mandarin classes before, and while I'm incredibly rusty, I can still tell just how fitting 恕 (jo) is for its meaning despite having never seen it before. The three radicals comprising that character have the meanings 'woman', 'mouth', and 'heart'. Considering that compassion is something women stereotypically express from their hearts, its composition is nigh perfect.
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Seriously.
And that's some beautiful calligraphy!
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Don't forget all of this is a hobby. He's military. I presume that America's plan for a Red Dawn scenario is
WOLVERINESairdropping Cold into Moscow to personally fight it out with Putin atop the tallest spire of St Basil's Cathedral.Shirtless.
In a thunderstorm.
Using handheld bear launchers as weapons.
4503205 The real battle is over who gets the broadcast and media tie-in rights to the fight.
Compassion is also one of Taoism's primary virtues.
Pretty art!
Do you have Magic Gaijin Powers?
I have a friend who was in the Navy and stationed in Japan. He said he could do things like sit on the bus and everypony would like sit far away from him like he had a magical repellant.
He especially enjoyed when somepony would tell him he was doing something the wrong way, and he would just keep doing the thing as the pony-who-was-telling-him's face would keep getting redder and madder.
If you ever get a chance to visit the Naval base in Sasebo, Nagasaki, you should try the local champon and the Sasebo burger.
This is seriously a cool, cool thing. I've always been fascinated by the art of shodo. I feel like it is akin to poetry, in a way, expressing emotion through a word or phrase. So neat.
What is the Japanese pseudonym you chose for yourself, CiG, which you had carved on that stamp? :o
Beautifully done and congrats on finding a ladyfriend n_n
Ah, I remember the Japanese course I took back in college. The teacher was a calligraphy enthusiast herself, and to my untrained eye, quite good at it. Beautiful script, in skilled hands.
I remember basically none of the actual Japanese, but the course itself was fascinating.
(Don't stop practicing your languages, kids.)
I envy you. I was stationed in Japan back in the late eighties, and the experience has stayed with me all this time. I've always wanted to go back there...maybe someday soon I will.
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To handicap them I assume. I expect that to have that fight be hand-to-hand would have collateral damage measured in city blocks.
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i second this notion.
I like doing sumi-e painting, but haven't had any formal training in it, nor calligraphy.
still, I can tell from personal experience: that's some really good brush control there!
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Nothing special, just my name. ジョン。
That's beautiful, 恕hn.
Whoa I didn't know that you were in Japan or had taken up calligraphy. That's awesome dude. More than I've managed to do in like a year and half (though my Go game and kanji knowledge are getting pretty decent I think). For the record, I'm like an hour from Misawa if you know anybody stationed up there.
(embarrassingly I really couldn't think of a good way to say all that in Japanese, at least that I was relatively sure was grammatically correct. Although I've been here long enough that my default reaction was 「へーーー」)