Have many people here tried calligraphy (shodou)?

the other day I bought a calligraphy set....all together it was about 2000 yen...so not too expensive.

I thought it was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from scribbling kanji in a notebook. And I think it is good practice too because it really made me think about how I write characters.

Though it is a little more difficult that I expected. My first attempts were pretty bad, but maybe I'm starting to get the hang of it ^__^

so anyways, for all the kanji otaku here, I recommend trying it, if you haven't

if you count using a 筆ペン from 99 for RTK sessions as 書道, then yes, I practice it.

Show us some pictures!

I tried copying a sutra once with a calligraphy brush, but as you might expect, it was more difficult than I expected too - and that wasn't even really calligraphy (I was even tracing the characters...) Too bad I didn't get a snapshot of it - apparently you don't get the blessing if you take the page home?

shaydwyrm Wrote:Too bad I didn't get a snapshot of it - apparently you don't get the blessing if you take the page home?

If it's anything like おみくじ, then it depends on the place you do it. Some places you have to tie them up if you want the blessing, other places you tie it up if you don't want it, and still others you tie it up in different places depending on if you do/don't want it.

Ones that are tied up are eventually burnt. I suspect your 書道 suffered the same fate.

I don't have any pictures of my characters since I just do my RTK on scrap paper which I promptly throw out. I can assure you that the quality of my work isn't that great.

I do calligraphy every Tuesday evening and Friday this week. Currently working on writing 秋時雨. A million (imaginary) dollars to anyone who can pronounce that word without looking it up.

Is the last 2 kanji pronounced しぐれ？ (scattered showers)

しゅうじう

(IME) computer says no...

synewave Wrote:Is the last 2 kanji pronounced しぐれ？ (scattered showers)

Yea. All together it's あきしぐれ
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/search.php?M...se=1&row=0

Did you already know that word? There seem to be a bunch of words with irregular readings that contain the 雨 kanji.

JimmySeal Wrote:Did you already know that word? There seem to be a bunch of words with irregular readings that contain the 雨 kanji.

Can't remember where I picked that up from but do remember having it on a word card some time ago. It sticks in my mind as it was a kanji compound that I learned pre-Heisig that the kids at my school couldn't read.