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March 20th, 2012

yorukamome @ 11:47 pm: impermanences
many of you will perhaps remember the splendid movie scene in "spring, summer, fall, winter...and spring again"
(봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄, by Kim Ki-duk, 2003) where the Zen Sensei writes his shodou with simple water
on a roof tile and waits for the kanji to fade in the sun, a perfect image of impermanence...well, as I regularly fill
my basket with tons of waste papers, I said myself "why don't you get something like that?" - I went to my old
friend's ceramics lab, bought a rough "cotto" tile 20 x 20 cms and framed it in solid wood...so here you are
my own "impermanence training board", still wet after some essays:

...and its use - well, it was hard to hold both the brush and the camera, and stay as still as both things require!
anyway, I'm writing 「文武両道・ bunbu ryōdō」which means approximately "the way of a poet and warrior":

February 12th, 2012

yorukamome @ 09:42 pm: a very personal way to "zuihitsu"

in classical japanese lyric poetry - as well as in several ukiyo-e œuvres and many other japanese art disciplines - winter snow,
moon and spring cherry blossoms are often found together in the triptych format 「雪月花・ setsugekka」; this peculiar feature
is supposed to originate from a verse by the chinese poet Bo Chu I ・白居易 (772-846, known in Japan as Haku Kyoi, or also
Haku Rakuten ・白楽天), where the image can be read as follows:

雪月花の時最も君を憶ふ・ setsugekka no toki mottomo kimi o omou

when I see snow, moon, flowers
I always think of you

Emperor Fushimi (伏見院皇帝, 1265-1317):

恋しさに成り立つ中の眺目には面影ならぬ草も木も無し・ koishisa ni naritatsu naka no nagame ni ha omokage naranu kusa mo ki mo nashi

in the midst of love, within my gaze,
in everything I can’t see but one thing:
no shade of tree, no blade of grass - only a vision of you.

I decided to write this 「uta ・歌」 keeping only some kanji (generally the most usual to everybody’s eye and use in the japanese
writing of those times), as it was common in all the original folia I’ve searched and seen – you can read my chosen as follows:
「恋しさになりたつ中のなが目にはおもかげならぬ草も木もなし」

茶禅一味・ cha zen ichi mi

Tea and Zen, one flavor

February 10th, 2012

yorukamome @ 11:40 pm: new brushes, ancient ink
I received the parcel coming from my friend Shiromoto Kenji San, who produces excellent quality brushes in Hiroshima - I also had
the chance, a couple of weeks ago, to buy an ancient and very good pinewood soot 「shōen boku ・松煙墨」 sumi ink...so I tried
some pieces, writing simple sequences and re-writing two of my oldest haiku:

風が家に帰る・ kaze ga uchi ni kaeru

the wind gets back home

夜を飛ぶ孤独な鴎おそれなく・ yoru o tobu kodoku na kamome osorenaku

lonely gull, doesn't fear the flight through the night

松の森とつぜんお絹二次を見る・ matsu no mori totsuzen no kinu niji o miru

pinetrees wood - sudden, silky, I see a rainbow

書道・ shodō ・ japanese calligraphy

February 8th, 2012

yorukamome @ 05:59 pm: a few more gyōshō - sōshō essays

さむいごご
おしゃべりかもめ
てでたべる

「寒い午後お喋りかもめ手で食べる」 samui gogo ・ o-shaberi kamome ・ te de taberu

cold afternoon – chatty seagulls eat from my hand

灰の恋
ほぼも忘れた
冬日向

hai no koi ・ hobo mo wasureta ・ fuyu hinata

love made of ashes,
already almost forgotten -
winter sunlight

ひとりねし
ながきしもよよ
こえもなし

「一人寝し長き霜夜声も無し」 hitori neshi ・ nagaki shimoyo yo ・ koe mo nashi

sleeping alone – long frosty night, not even one voice

February 6th, 2012

yorukamome @ 03:42 pm: new essays in gyōshō and sōshō

Fushimi in’no Shinsaishō (dates unknown), sister of Yamamoto Kaneyuki, lady-in-waiting to the retired Emperor Fushimi (early 14th century) – from the “Fūgashū (Collection of Elegance)”, 1347.

練られねばただ付くずけとものを思う心にかわるともしびの色
nerareneba tada tsukuzuke to mono o omou kokoro ni kawaru tomoshibi ni iro

unable to sleep
I lose myself so wholly
in thoughts of love
that my heart becomes one
with the colour of my lamp

Lady Ukon (右近) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukon_(poet)
from the "hyakunin isshu ・百人一首" (one hundred poems by one hundred poets) - poem # 38:

wasuraruru mi woba omowazu chikahite-shi hito no inochi no oshiku mo aru kana
忘らるる身をば思はず誓ひてし人の命の惜しくもあるかな

I am forsaken
but about myself I don’t care
I must fear instead
for the life you swore away
when we made our vows of love

Eifuku Mon'in 「永福門院?」, 1271–1342, a consort of the 92nd Emperor, Fushimi.

頼めねば人やはうきと思ひなせど今宵も遂にまた明けにけり
tanomeneba hito ya ha uki to omoinasedo koyoi motsui ni akenikeri

he made no promise
so I try to tell myself
not to be bitter
until this long night too
ends with a lonely dawn

(fujiwara no shunzei, 1114-1204 - from "senzai wakashu"

思ひあまりそなたの空をながむればかすみを分けて春雨ぞふる
omohi amari sonata no sora o nagamureba kasumi o wakete harusame zo furu

overcome by love
I gazed upon the sky
about where you dwell
and saw the haze parted there
by a shower of spring rain

February 4th, 2012

yorukamome @ 12:48 pm: some more essays in gyōshō and sōshō

Lady Ukon (右近) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukon_(poet)
from the "hyakunin isshu ・百人一首" (one hundred poems by one hundred poets) - poem # 38:

wasuraruru mi woba omowazu chikahite-shi hito no inochi no oshiku mo aru kana
忘らるる身をば思はず誓ひてし人の命の惜しくもあるかな

I am forsaken
but about myself I don’t care
I must fear instead
for the life you swore away
when we made our vows of love

(fujiwara no shunzei, 1114-1204 - from "senzai wakashu"

思ひあまりそなたの空をながむればかすみを分けて春雨ぞふる
omohi amari sonata no sora o nagamureba kasumi o wakete harusame zo furu

overcome by love
I gazed upon the sky
about where you dwell
and saw the haze parted there
by a shower of spring rain

January 23rd, 2012

yorukamome @ 06:08 pm: rewriting

an old ku I enjoyed rewriting in my (poor) "sōshō" cursive hand, I'm also adding my original full kanji writing:

on the pine branch a silky spider net, step to the moon

まつのえにきぬのくものす月へだん・ matsu no e ni kinu no kumo no su tsuki he dan

松の枝に
絹の蜘蛛の巣
月へ段

yorukamome @ 01:17 am: gyoushou style
just an essay, half-haiga half-haiku, in gyosho style - I'm also adding both the simple hiragana and the full kanji writings:

一人ねや
ねぬよねぬ月
愛のもう

hitori ne ya ・ nenu yo nenu tsuki ・ ai no mou
一人ねやねぬにょねぬ月愛のもう

sleepless lonely night - up with the moon, blind of love

January 22nd, 2012

yorukamome @ 01:34 am: 新しい俳句

天気よ
り変化異なり
我心

tenki yori henka kotonari waga kokoro ・ unlike my heart, weather keeps on changing

初雪の
心成る人
雪仏

hatsuyuki no kokoro naru hito yukihotoke ・ first snow - like a snowman the heart melts

目前の
涙の花見
妻なきや

mokuzen no namida no hanami tsumanaki ya ・in a short while a hanami of tears – no woman by my side

January 20th, 2012

yorukamome @ 10:38 pm: a series of "hommage à"
hommage à tan taigi (the haiku dates 1770)

長き日や
目の着れたる
海の上

nagaki hi ya me no tsukeretaru umi no ue ・ long day - my eyes exhaust over the sea

hommage à Matsuo Bashô (1644-1694)

冬枯れや
世は一色二
風の音

fuyugare ya yo ha hito iro ni kaze no oto ・ winter faintness - wind resounds through a one-color world

hommage à Yosa Buson (1715-1783)

なかなかに
一人あればぞ
月を友

naka naka ni hitori areba zo tsuki o tomo ・ to the lone man closer friend is the moon

身にしむや
亡き妻の櫛を
閨に踏む

mi ni shimu ya naki tsuma no kushi o neya ni fumu ・ in my room I stamp on the comb that once was hers – a bite in my flesh

目に嬉
恋君の線
ま白成る

me ni ureshi koigimi no sen mashiro naru ・ pretty to my eyes your fan so white, my love