with the other elements of the work.
General Remarks
Never expect to manage a perfect work on the first attempt. Ogishi only began to experience satisfaction with his work at the age of fifty and that after a life of relentless practice. Many calligraphers will write the same piece fifty to a hundred or more times using the best of materials, rare inks and expensive papers each time. Small wonder works of calligraphy are so expensive to buy. Do not be defeated though. After a good many earnest attempts there will be one that stands out from among the rest, good not only from a technical standpoint, but one that also brims with the feeling you had hoped to express.
This effect may be more difficult to manage in seal carving since if one makes a mistake or becomes dissatisfied with this work for some reason or other, the scone must be cut down, sanded smooth and started again. In carved calligraphy this obstacle can be avoided to some extent by writing the original on less expensive paper at the outset or making slight amendments in the tracing. The expense will be incurred in the wood and other materials.
Jō Emotion
It is difficult to express enough the importance of blending an emotional state and calligraphy together in a work. A Chinese proverb puts it succinctly: “If the heart is right, the handwriting will be correct.” A work without feeling may as well be a street sign. Sign painters do not necessarily make the best calligraphers and that is why shops with a reputation to maintain will often commission a famous calligrapher to write their shop sign.
In the hurried, full of pressures world we live in it is often a problem to adjust the feelings of the moment to match the content of our calligraphy. For this I find music invaluable. To engender a sad, lonely feeling I play Sibelius’ Valse Triste. To reproduce a powerful, majestic feeling there is Bruckner’s 9th Symphony. Dixieland Jazz played loudly goes far toward giving me a happy, joyful feeling. You no doubt have musical pieces of your own of which you are particularly fond that will produce differing emotional states in yourself. I would not, however, recommend using a radio because commentary tends to divert the attention and succeeds only in distracting one from the task at hand. Music will win over your heart and your calligraphy will improve by leaps and bounds. As for myself, when planning a work I look for a poem that is one, the right length for the composition I am planning, two, has a content I find enjoyable and three, has characters of a sort that will either make for an attractive work or be challenging. Then I look for the piece of music that I think has similar qualities: the spiritual tone (sadness, happiness, loneliness) that I hope to instill in the work. If you do the same, first put your music on to create the state of mind you require and only then approach your paper. Emotion will flow from your soul, down your arm, through your brush and on to the paper. By now you will have had much practice at making the brush an extension of your arm.
Actual Realities of
Planning Your Work
First of all decide upon the poem, select your materials and style of character and then try a few lines on hanshi paper to determine whether a vertical or horizontal layout suits the size and shape of the work and Just how the characters might best be arranged. Then try your composition on paper the same size as your projected work, but of a cheaper quality. Give some thought too as to whether there will be a rakkan dedication or not and where seals might be placed. Position of the seal will normally be symbolized by drawing a little square on the paper. Once the plan is set, get on with the writing of your work.
Hyōgu Backing
The tools: 1) A smooth surfaced, solid table
2) A drying board of either smooth plywood or veneer
3) A long ruler
4) A piece of backing paper the same quality as your work, but slightly thicker and larger in area
5) Another piece like (4)
6) A brush for glue, noribake
7) A soft, clean brush for water, mizubake
8) A brush with hard bristles, shirobake
9) Glue, a thin cow gum or any water based glue is good. Specialists use a glue called shōfu. Boiled wheatflour is sometimes used as well.
10) Several old sheets of newsprint.
The method:
Firstly if the work is not your own, it is important to know whether the work to be backed was written using a proper inkstick sumi or with prepared ink bokujū. Sumi is made of soot and a natural glue called either nikawa or funori. Japanese make this glue from cows’ or horses’ bones and the Chinese from whale bone. Japanese ink sets more firmly than Chinese which means it is less likely to bleed when dampened. Bokujū has improved so much recently that better brands run hardly at all. Nevertheless here is a note of the chances of their running: Ordinary prepared inks, 50%; special or very thick bokujū, 10%; Chinese inksticks, 5-10% and Japanese inksticks, less than 5%, If you have a work done by a specialist, he will warn you of the possibility of its running and may even go so far as to taste the sumi with the tip of his tongue to ascertain its origin.
Avoid using Western paper and Oriental papers together as Western paper is much less absorbent. Prepare sufficient sheets of thin backing paper before starting. If the work is large or is made of several pieces of paper, backing papers must be joined ahead of time into a suitable length (see illustration), Take piece A and draw a line with the ruler and water brush as shown. Then gently pull off the piece marked “X”. The tear will be straight, but some fibres of the paper will be left sticking out. These the Japanese call teashi, limbs. Now do the same for piece B. Join pieces of newsprint and place them on your working surface. They ought to extend to an area larger than the size of your work.
Dry newsprint is a must because if the ink on the sheets is still fresh, it will transfer to the backing on your work. Cover the backing paper with a thin coat of glue, about the same consistency as thin cream. If the work to be backed is quite large, place the backing on a single sheet at a time and then add glue to them.
Get the first sheet in place and then proceed to the second. Lift the pieces with the ruler (see illustration). See that the teashi hang downwards and be very careful to join the ends of the papers together in a way that they interlock, not overlap.
Brush all the wrinkles flat, but avoid brushing around the join itself. This spot is best pressed flat with the ruler. Make sure that both pieces of paper are either rough side up or down, not one of each. Dampen the work from behind slightly so that wrinkles are removed and place it on the prepared backing sheets.
Go over the front of the work with a soft, dry brush working out from the center to ensure even contact with the backing and removal of any air pockets. The midway point in the process is pictured at right. Now be certain there is sufficient glue around the border at Z of a slightly thicker mixture.
Lift corners at D and E and transfer everything to the drying board which will have been propped earlier against a wall. Brush the entire picture with the hard bristled brush, remove the newspaper and brush out from the center once more. Any stubborn air pockets still remaining may be removed by pricking them with a pin, A trick of the
