
This "kanji" stands for snow. This is just a part of the entire big paper where I practised many times for an annual performance that our groupe holds every year in January at the occasion of "Kakizomé"
I particularly liked this writing of snow, although it was on a draft. This looks simple and even miserable, not in a way that it is not pretty. In this stylization of "kanji", I see all the warmness and the hardness to co-live with the snow. So I took a picture to remain for later.
Oh, there was another exotic word after "kanji"..... What is "Kakizomé" ?
「書き初め」 - literally "first writing"- is a Japanese term for the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year. Traditionnaly, we celebrate to welcome the new year by writing for the first time of the year. The word you write is often about your new year resolution or it could be your favorite word too.
In our performance, each had to choose two themes and I chose like this. One big piece with a "Waka" (Japanese ancient style poeme consisted of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 phrase rythme. Slightely longer than famous "Haiku") of my granduncle who was a poet himself, Sumié Okazaki. (If you are interested, you can google him as 岡崎澄衛. How cool name is that?)
The poeme was about a scenary in snow in my natal place so it matched well with the season. My mother in Japan picked it up for me. I have a crazy ability to sympathize or visualize all the things I see - when I first read this poeme, I was in my hometown. I was wrapped in the snow, it was a silent snowstorm. Then the storm went up to the sky, making a tornado. The peace came down. The sun shined again. I see the world in white. I am standing alone. I see ahead. I still see a clear world.
I felt all those things in a second and decided to write this for the performance. For the honor to my granduncle, I make it clear that in the poem he rather quotes the fleeces of falling snow(牡丹雪), not a snowstorm as a type of snow. However, the tone of the poem sounds quite violent and keen for me so I think that is why I imagined the storm. The whole tranlation will come soon!
The second piece was in fact my own new year's resolution of 2013 - 「始の三年」standing for "The first 3 years"
Indeed, life was not always easy everyday in Paris so it was really a personal resolution of mine that I would finish at least the first three years living (and working) in a very different and special culture....... called France ;)
I will show you in later posts the pictures of each piece and explain more. Stay tuned!
Best,
Mari