After some fun mark making and then some stroke practice, we worked on the characters together in two styles (kaisho standard script, and sōsho cursive ‘grass’ style). Blair discussed their visual background, including the pictograms of the foot at the crossroads and also the heart-mind, and the meanings of the phrase in zen ✨

Here is a short waka poem by Master Dogen (translation by S. Heine) on the theme of ‘satori’ and the ‘way’:

seeking the way
amid the deepest mountain paths,
the retreat I find
none other than
my primordial home: satori!

Master Dogen (translation by S. Heine)

Many thanks for joining and also to participants who shared their calligraphy for this post.

At the end of January and start of February we ran two sessions, our monthly group at KSD centre and the other a special group for students in the west end of Glasgow. One of the phrases we brushed was 福寿 Fukuju – which can be translated as luck and longevity, or blessings and congratulations.

At KSD Blair introduced the characters and their background seen in old styles such as the tensho (with pictograms including symbols of long life and sake for blessings) before we enjoyed some loosening up and basic stroke practice. We then started brushing the kaisho standard ‘boxy’ script, working on the two kanji in a single page of hanshi paper, finding the chushin centre line and balance between the characters.

We then went on to sōsho ‘grass’ full cursive style, this time copying Fukuju written by Blair’s first Shodō teacher Wakabayashi Shūjō (based Toyama, Japan) who enjoyed brushing these characters often on paper, calligraphy board or even elegant Chinese vases, sometimes on a very large scale with the expressive marking he loved. It was a fun example to work from, so well done to everyone trying out writing his energetic style. Thanks for joining and catch up with you again next time!

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