Wow! I had the neatest experience last week. In my Japanese painting class, I'm working on designing and doing my own nengajo (New Year's card). People send nengajo out at the end of the year and I believe they are all delivered on New Year's Day.
My teacher gave me a list of kichigo ("lucky/good fortune" expressions) and in deciding on which to use for my card, I asked the Japanese teachers here at school for their recommendation. Suddenly they got the kyoto sensei (assistant principal) involved, and he started showing me books he's made of all the inkan (stone/wood carved stamp or seal) he's done!
Here are some of his designs - oh - sorry - I forgot to put in something for a reference to the size of these. They're quite small, these are at most about 5cm long...so that makes them really difficult to carve!I don't know what these say, but I'll print out this page for Kyoto sensei, and maybe he'll make a response... :)
4 comments:
Very cool. I have always wanted one of those that said my initials in English and my name in kanji in the same inkan.
very cool 2. i have a nice inkan with my first name on it (n hiragana) that my friends in Minoh had made for me a couple of years ago. the neat thing is the shape (of the part you hold) is a risu.
by the way, i just got home today from a wonderful three weeks. i posted my first kouyou photo a little while ago.
篆刻「河碧鳥愉白山青華燃然」
（意味）紺碧の川に鳥の飛び遊ぶ姿は、いよいよ白く、青々とした山に真っ赤な花が燃えている。
諫早高校 教頭 石見 茂
Konpeki no kawa ni
tori no tobi asobu sugata wa iyo iyo shiroku,
ao-ao to shita yama ni
makka na hana ga moete iru
It's from Chinese poetry...
It roughly means (but any help with the translation is appreciated!):
***
Above the azure river
The soaring bird
becomes more and more white
In the greenery on the mountain
There is a scarlet flower
that looks like fire.
***
I think the idea is for the reader to just meditate on the simple images this poems creates...try to imagine being there to see them...blue river, white bird, green mountain, red flower
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