Month: October 2009

The Four Treasures: Ink, ii

This really is my home-made video debut.  For my birthday, I got a Kodak Zi8.  I’ve never shot a video in my life.  It’s been in the back of my mind for some time to try to create videos on various subjects, in particular those related to sumi ink painting.  I’ve long admired a number of ink artists, and have learned a lot from watching their videos.  So, I decided to make a video today, just to see what I can do.  Already, I know that what I have done is incredibly amateur, but for a first try, I decided to go ahead and post what I’ve done.  Just making the videos gave such a greater appreciation for the thought which goes into a good one, as well as having good editing software.  The Kodak Zi8 comes with MediaImpression for Kodak, by ArcSoft.  I’ve managed to add a title and an ending to the file, but nothing else.  What you see is really unedited footage!

The Art of Grinding an Ink Stick

Many authors of Japanese and Chinese ink-painting books will tell you that while you grind the ink on the stone, with gentle motions, it is a good time to collect oneself.  I agree.  I like to take my time, listen to calming music, and relax.  Focusing on breathing helps – in, out, in, out – slowing down.  Given the permanency of every ink stroke in sumi, it makes sense to calm down, to control one’s energy, and to take time to become centered.  Breathing helps.  I know that if I start out feeling stressed, my painting is stressed, tight and unhappy.  Grinding ink is a period of transition.

Making the Video

Well, making the video was a pain!  At first the camera was too low, and the field of vision too narrow.  I had to build up the height of the camera, and retrain its focus.  Looking at the video, certainly lighting needs to be improved, and the camera should be coming over my left shoulder, and lighting needs to be less yellow (maybe use the no-light setting!?!).  Shadows need to disappear.

Purpose of the Video

  1. Show the ink stone, with water
  2. Demonstrate the ink stick
  3. Demonstrate the upright position of the ink stick, and the motion on the top of the stone, as well as pulling the water up from the well of the stone, to continue the grinding process
  4. Show the creation of dark ink, show the creation of medium ink, and the creation of light ink
  5. Show through the time of the video that grinding ink for sumi does take time – it’s not something poured out of a bottle.

The Video

Let me know what you think!  Try it in HD and full screen, too.

Japanese Class: Hiragana

This morning before I popped off to my Japanese class at the Oxnard Buddhist Temple, I practiced writing hiragana, and thought about my own practice of mastering it. While there are a few characters which I am still struggling with, just because I am not yet clear on the rules of pronunciation, I feel pretty good at being able to see them and identify them fairly quickly. What I would really like is to do is sit down and read them in a story and be able to understand the language constructs. I have yet to learn katakana and kanji, but that will come later.

Online, there are numerous sites with hiragana fonts, flip-cards to enhance learning recognition, software downloads. A lot of applications are also available for the iPod or iPhone. However, while those are great resources, for me there is nothing better than sitting down and repetitively writing down the hiragana and saying each sound as I do so. In class, we learned a song to sing, like the ABC song we learn as children. I sing it to myself (when no one is around to hear me!) and visualize each hiragana as I say it. I stumble around with the “hya” and such, when I sing, but at least I am getting it.

Another area which is challenging is recognizing subtleties of the hiragana. Many look similar, but have subtle differences. I found it very helpful to isolate the hiragana nu, ne, no, me, re, and wa since they all look very much alike. Listening to Japanese and transcribing it into hiragana is also difficult, particularly when vowels are drawn out, and when sensei says “tsu” and “su.”

Practicing and memorizing the hiragana is only the first step. Because I enjoy painting, I’ve used sumi ink and calligraphy brushes. Another fun thing to do is to paint the different ones in different watercolors. I’ve also got a brush pen from Sailor – a Profit – that takes cartridges and a piston filler, so I can use colored fountain pen ink in it. And the final fun way to learn hiragana (and then katakana and kanji) is the inkless calligraphy paper – just dip your brush in water, paint it on, look at the strokes, watch them disappear – and do it over and over again on the same piece of paper.

Result? Mission Hiragana accomplished, with a heck of a lot of fun!