Matsumoto san again

I made this picture story board in January in memory of my friend,Matsumoto san. He was a Tenrikyo minister and also a talented singer and song writer. The mountain man in the picture story board is him. He and I organized a series of concert over the past several years, and in the beginning of this year he passed away suddenly. The tiny momiji tree is still growing though, more leaves are on it now and turning color.

Matsumoto san's son has succeeded the concert, which was held the other day. I had written a poem in memory of Matsumoto san and had sent it to the son with a letter after the passing. He later added tune to the poem and sang at the concert.
The Yoki Hall, where the concert was held, was packed with people. It turned out to be a very moving and successful concert.

Haiga 702 Jun Ohsato haiku

Haiku by Jun Ohsato (Japan). Artowrk by myself.

Haiga 701 Lars Vargo haiku

Haiku by Lars Vargo (Sweden). Artwork by myself.
Vargo san is the ambassador of Sweden to Japan since this year. The other night, Ban'ya and he did lectures on haiku at the embassy in Tokyo. Vargo san is a poet and a haijin as well. He has published books of haiku. Kamakura san, Ban'ya's wife, sent me a number of haiku by Vargo san, so I made this haiga.

Vargo san also edits haiku website.

Basho passed away around here

The other day, my friends and I were in Osaka for a meeting. We discussed about the upcoming haiga exhibition to be held at a place right on the Mido-suji Ave, busiest street in Osaka. Also on the avenue, a bit away to the north, is a place where Matsuo Basho passed away. The photo here is the stone monument which says just that, "Basho passed away around here".

One of my friends, Kitahara san, who had taken this photo, shared a remark made by some young. "Did Basho die in traffic accident?" We just had to laugh at it. That is the extent of appriciation of Basho among ordinary young Japanese.

Mido-suji Ave. was a narrow street back in Basho's time. It was lined with small stores, and Basho was staying one of them, which sold cut flowers. It was Basho's second visit to Osaka. He was there to settle some dispute between two of his old disciples. He became ill, and though he never expected death, he passed away. In his sick bed, he wrote the following haiku:

Falling sick on a journey -
my dream goes wandering
over a field of withered grass

Haiga 700 Antoaneta Nikolova haiku 2

Haiku by Antoaneta Nikolova. Artwork by myself.

Haiga 699 Antoaneta Nikolova haiku 1

Haiku by Antoaneta Nikolova (Bulgaria). Artwork by myself.
Antoaneta teaches philosophy of the East at the South-West University in Bulgaria.

The subjects I did not do well at college are religion and philosophy. That could have been so because I was studying them in the second language. I was then too preoccupied with producing more and more paintings. That probably was the main reason for my poor achievement in the subjects.

Interestingly, I am now a church minister, in a position to teach religion, giving lectures and conducting classes.

Senryu on toilet peper

My friend gave me this roll of toilt paper. Printed on it are senryu about toilet. TOTO, a toilet company in japan held a contest of toilet senryu, and the winners' senryu are printed on the roll. It costs about $4 a roll, and is sold at a bookstore. When you are in toilet, you read it and supposed to giggle on the senryu. I did read them but not really funny. It is just an expensive joke.

Haiga 698 J.D. Heskin haiku 2

Haiku by J.D. Heskin (USA). Artwork by myself.
The kanji in the haiga are the first four kanji from a poem by a prominet Chinese poet, Du Fu ( 杜甫 ), (712–770). They mean, a country was defeated, but moutains and rivers still remained. One kanji is missing but still the meaning is obvious.

This is a famous poem that anyone who attended high school in Japan know it. The poem came to my mind when I read the haiku by Heskin so I added it to this haiga. I think the complex images of the kanji contrast well with the minimally simple image of the rest of the haiga.

Haiga 697 J.D. Heskin haiku

Haiku by J.D. Heskin (USA). Artwork by myself.

One line drawing is what I do sometimes. It looks pretty easy, but often times it is the result of many trial and error. In this haiga, I tried to draw two shapes of ears, and a bird. Though it is time consuming, the process itself is fun. And I feel its lightness in appearance fits well with haiku.

Haiga 696 Sonia C. Corman haiku 2

Haiku by Sonia C. Corman (Rumania). Artwork by myself.
This is a good example of "Shasei" haiku. For this haiga, the earth came to dominate in my mind first. How do I make the ground of soil visually interesting?

I first drew layers of ground and painted them in different shades of reddish earth color, and background in greenish color. The interaction of the complementary colors itself makes the haiga eye-catching. Then I added at a far corner a horse and a farmer in silhouette because it plays secondary role in this haiga. Dark silhouette also give good weight to the haiga. Finally I added fog-like thing between the layers of the ground.

Haiga 695 Sonia C. Corman haiku 1

Haiku by Sonia C. Corman (Rumania). Artwork by myself.
Sonia was very young, like in her early teens, when she wrote this haiku. I have seen many stained glass in Europe so I can visualize the scene of this haiku. This haiga is more like an illustration than a haiga. I wanted to include stained glass in it for it is so beautiful. And I enjoyed illustrating a stained glass image.
There are set of rules I maintain in making haiga but I get fuzzy sometimes.

Haiga 694 George Swede haiku 4

Haiku by George Swede. Artwork by myself.
Another short haiku by George. He is really good at the short ones.
Reading the haiku, I felt something sensual in it so I depicted it in this way.

As autumn progresses, night time gets longer. Good season for quite reading. On my bedside are several books I am reading now. My reading habit is like, I start off with Japanese and later switch to English, or vise versa. Now, I am switching two books, "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, and a Japanese novel by Kiyoko Murata, an extraordinary and inventive woman novelist I recently found. Haruki Murakami is well known thoughout the world, but there are other great writers in Japan, and I think she is one of them.

Haiga 693 George Swede haiku 3

Haiku by George Swede. Artwork by myself.
Outside of my office window is a line of ginko trees. Leaves crowded together have turned yellow now. Soon they will fall one by one, leaving the branches and carpeting the ground. I can hear one of the remaining leaves on the branch mumbling this haiku in the haiga.

I feel lucky that the seasons go around me. I know my body says, "Can't bear the muggy summer, and stinging icy cold wind", but my mind say the otherwise. "Each season is inspirational for a haiku and art mind"

Haiga 692 George Swede haiku 2

Haiku by George Swede (Canada). Artwork by myself.
This is one of "So, what?" haiku, but it somehow makes you stop and think for a while. I did think for a while and came up with this haiga.

George probably was writing haiku then and realized that he was holding a pencil that was scribbling his thought. Come to think about it, there is an amazing nerve system that connects the brain to the tips of our fingers. We take it for granted but it is amazing.

Those who cannot use hands, they use foot to write. In both cases, it is the end of oneself that express what is in one's mind, which is located at the another end.

Haiga 691 George Swede haiku 1

Haiku by George Swede (Canada). Artwork by myself.
Like any kids, I did my share of fishing when I was small. In the area where I was born, there were many ponds. Because there was no big rivers in the area, farmers made the ponds for irrigation purpose. For kids, the ponds provided perfect fishing spots.

Thinking back those days, I just do not see how I spent so much time just sitting on the bank and waiting for fishes to bite. I think I was probably doing some philosophy-ing, not about big themes like the life, the existence, and such, but just maybe comparing the world we live and the one where fishes live. I felt superior to fish in small pond because I lived in wider world. It was many year later that I was in the middle of Pacific Ocean, being awed by the endless expanse of the sea. I felt so small.

Haiga 690 Nicholas Virgilio haiku 3

Haiku by Nicholas Virgillio. Artwork by myself.
I was reading Nick's haiku again, and found this haiku. It seems that this haiku comes before the one on haiga 688, the mother one. I made this haiga yesterday.

I have started reading Kindle version of "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson. Steve had strong background in counterculture that flourished during and after the Viet Nam War, in which Nick's brother died. All the energy of the political dissent and hippie culture of the young went into the digital world of computer thereafter. Truly interesting era. I, on the other hand, was heavily into the fine art then.

Haiga 689 Nicholas Virgilio haiku 2

Haiku by Nicholas Virgillio (1928-1989). Artwork by myself.
This is Nick's most well-known haiku. I think it is carved on his gravestone or his memorial in Camden, NJ.

Lily looks out of itself when taken out of water. Indeed, there are things in this world that have the place where they shine the most. In this haiga, I went a bit beyond. "itself" refers to lily's appearance, its mood, and its existence. Even after those outward conditions are gone, there yet remains lily's spirit, which I depicted as small faint circle in the upper portion of the haiga.

Haiga 688 Nicholas Virgilio haiku 1

Haiku by Nicholas (Nick) Virgilio (1928-1989). Artwork by myself.
This is more an illustration than a haiga, but I somehow felt that I wanted to illustrate the scene. It is purely from my imagination. Nicholas wrote a series of haiku about his brother who died in Viet Nam War. I first found the haiku in Cor's haiku anthology, and one of them became a haiga.

When the war was raging, I was in Hawaii, attending high school with little knowledge of the war for I was too preoccupied with my own little war (assimilation) to see what was happening in the world. Fortunately I survived my war and here I am, writing a blog.

Long car trip

My wife and I made a long car trip, distance of about 500 miles. The map shows the route.
The reason for the drive was to bring a small car from my wife's mom's home to my home. I purchased the car five years ago so that when my wife visited mom, she could take care of her old mom, now 86. Just recently, however, mom has decided to sell her house and move to an old folks home nearby. The car is five years old, but hardly used so we decided to bring it back.

We considered using professional mover but the cost is expensive. With less expense, we could pay travel expenses, gas and highway tolls, and staying a night at a nice hotel in Hakone, a resort near Mt. Fuji. Thus we set out on the road. The car was fine and we were fine. Turned out to be a good autumn trip.

Haiga 687 A.C. Missias #haiku

Haiku by A.C. Missias (USA). Artwork by myself.
Greece's case might become the heavy stone in the world financial situation. Watching it closely.

Foggy morning here. Grey sumi painting world.
Tradition of sumi painting originally came from China via Korea. I used to admire Chinese landscape painting with all the rugged towering mountains. I thought those mountains were from imagination because there had been no such mountain in Japan. But, later, when I saw some documentary film of China, I saw those mountains. They really exist. The paintings were actually a realistic ones. It was some finding to me then. Any artform seems to start with the direct observation.
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I am off to Tokyo again starting tomorrow. Won't be able to update this blog for a while, but stay turned.

Haiga 686 Ban'ya Natsuishi haiku 4

Haiku by Ban'ya Natsuishi. Artwork by myself.
Ban'ya san wrote several interesting haiku when he was invited to a poetry festival held in Genoa, Italy a few years back. Some people who are used to reading usual type of haiku might find this one perplexing. It is indeed perplexing so I guess the interpretation is up to the readers. You need not to "understand" it, but just "feel" it. That is what I did and came up with this image, which in turn perplexed Ban'ya san. It is a kind of creative game. Besides, how else would I have included Japanese haiku and three translations in a single image?

Haiga 685 Ban'ya Natsuishi haiku 3

Haiku by Ban'ya Natsuishi. Artwork by myself.
Again, Ban'ya's haiku from Wellington, New Zealand.
Usually, I use sumi brush to draw shapes of clouds in such ways that they show the presence of wind. Here, I use abstract shapes to show the flow of wind. I am experimenting a new way to depict something invisible.
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I moved my office yesterday. I think of myself a tidy guy, yet, I found there were so many things, including hundres of paper backs, to move. Things simply accumulate I guess. The haiga, which I hit 1000 a few years ago, is still accumulating. I stopped counting, I think there are around 1300 now. Unlike the paper books, haiga is all in digital data, they can fit in a small USB flash stick.

Haiga 684 Ban'ya Natsuishi haiku

Haiku by Ban'ya Natsuishi (Japan). Artwork by myself.
Ban'ya san wrote this haiku when he visited Wellington, New Zealand. A city noted for contant wind. Unlike Tokyo, where he lives, the windy city must have offered a crisp clear night sky.

I like to play with sumi brush. It gives me freedom in drawing. I do not need to follow the traditional use of brush (because I am not writing calligraphy). I do not need to get too much into the details (details are produced automatically as you move the brush).
Though I like the medium, I just have a few brushes (good ones get pretty expensive).

My father, though not much of a calligrapher, owns a good collection of brushes, from really big ones to skinny ones. He has a special hanger stand for them in his room. I am looking forward to hear him say, "They are all yours, go ahead and take them"