Careful with this. I once did a kakizome for 水 (mizu, water), because it's a nice simple character to draw. That year the bathroom leaked, flooding the house.
Better choose wisely this year!
Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#32Last year even though I didn’t have a theme, I made small changes in the way I live, tried to complete my 15 book goodreads challenge, started doing sports and improve myself professionally on my free time. This year started with pretty fundamental questions in the way I live and uncertainties about my future so deciding on a theme is very difficult. I can’t answer those questions and don’t know what I really want. I…
I don't always like the pressure of the "New Year" to come up with a "goal"... Maintaining the habits you already have isn't easy either! And I think a goal can emerge along the way.
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#33If nothing else, the fact that many people write anything with ink and brush helps to sustain the calligraphy culture. Nowadays, to many (if not most) of them the new year kakizome ritual is the only occasion they practice brush calligraphy in an entire year.
Do not think it's a bad thing... Even if it's just once a year
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#34The image caption is interesting: as a right-handed person myself, it had never occurred to me that handedness would matter so much in shodō. I wonder if Western calligraphy is this way too (maybe to a lesser degree, given that stroke order isn’t as crucial)?
Left-handed calligraphy is slightly harder in shodo. The two main thing I've struggled over the years is how to end a line in a beautiful way.
Usually, a line start with pressing slightly harder, then "drag" it while slowly lifting the pencil, making that end of the line more aesthetic by thinning it out. And at the end you move it swiftly.
It's much easier to control this end movement when you're dragging towards your body, rather than away from it. For left handed, it's essentially the opposite in the way that what for right handed is dragging towards you(r right hand) is away, so all the details become the opposite.
Apparently you can learn this as a lefthanded too, but in Japan it's quite common to "correct" lefthanded kids to learn to use both hands for writing, so not many people know the struggle or the remedy. (my mom used to point out that me and my younger brother wrote badly, and we are both left handed)
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#35A visible reminder that quietly nudges you throughout the year... It always works for me. I have a whiteboard at home where I write down my goals for the quarter. It’s satisfying to erase a goal from the board after completing it and write a new one.
Have you ever considered setting an annual theme rather than quarterly goals?
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#36Few more fun facts: Elementary school students all write kakizome at the end of December. Within the school, each grade will write the exact same thing. They're hung in the halls for all to see. Hundreds of the exact same kakizome. Many people burn their kakizome mid-January during "Dondoyaki." The posture, attention and care taken while writing Kakizome is one of the important points. Those, and the outcome of the c…
金 : kin : gold お金 : okane : money 金曜日 : kinyoubi : Friday (shortened to 金 on some calendars, kind of like how we do “Fri” sometimes in English) 金子 : kaneko : gold coin 金魚 : kingyo : goldfish
金子 is kinsu.
https://jisho.org/search/%E9%87%91%E5%AD%90
Kane is not a normal reading for 金 in compound words unless this is an esoteric word I haven’t seen.
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
金 : kin : gold お金 : okane : money 金曜日 : kinyoubi : Friday (shortened to 金 on some calendars, kind of like how we do “Fri” sometimes in English) 金子 : kaneko : gold coin 金魚 : kingyo : goldfish
金子 is kinsu. https://jisho.org/search/%E9%87%91%E5%AD%90 Kane is not a normal reading for 金 in compound words unless this is an esoteric word I haven’t seen.
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Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
金 : kin : gold お金 : okane : money 金曜日 : kinyoubi : Friday (shortened to 金 on some calendars, kind of like how we do “Fri” sometimes in English) 金子 : kaneko : gold coin 金魚 : kingyo : goldfish
金子 is kinsu. https://jisho.org/search/%E9%87%91%E5%AD%90 Kane is not a normal reading for 金 in compound words unless this is an esoteric word I haven’t seen.
That one sounds like Chinese word with hallucinated Japanese usage. 子 is IIUC casually used to mean "little ___ things" in Chinese, but same isn't the case with Japanese; 金子 is used as a somewhat discrete way to refer to an envelope of cash.
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#39I saw someone on mastodon[0] mentioning the idea of using a bingo card for new year resolutions rather than a specific objective.
It aligns with the idea of having a new year theme rather than a specific goal, and I liked the idea. Sadly, I'm not one for resolutions either way.
Re: Kakizome: Japanese way of new-years resolution
#40If nothing else, the fact that many people write anything with ink and brush helps to sustain the calligraphy culture. Nowadays, to many (if not most) of them the new year kakizome ritual is the only occasion they practice brush calligraphy in an entire year.
This is what I find most interesting about Japanese culture. The Japanese do things for seemingly superficial reasons which can seem redundant to an outsider but the more I learn, the more I see utility in a lot of it. They’ve seem so much come and go over the centuries they seem to just go their own way because it works for them. Almost feels like they’ve been burned enough times to know better than to just throw th…
They do seem to understand ergonomics and user experience better than most.
My Sony Xperia has all its buttons on one side. Seems awfully unorthodox, as almost all the other brands put them on both sides.
Until of course you start using the phone with one hand or lay it on its side to watch a movie.