Japanese art and calligraphy resources for SCA scribes

[Saionji Shonagon]

Happy New Year. As promised, I've whacked together some resources for Japanese calligraphy and illumination and hereby submit for your approval: wodefordhall.com/japanesescrolls.htm

Please direct comments, corrections or suggestions to this thread or to my email address at wodeford AT yahoo DOT com.

Do you want to help? Are you able to translate award text into Japanese and would you be willing to be listed on the web page as a contact for that service? Let me know!

It is my hope to try to spread this to C&I groups throughout the known world after a couple weeks of receiving your input and making any necessary revisions.


Many thanks for your attention. Saionji no Hana, OL, West Kingdom

[solveig]

Noble Cousins!

Greetings from Solveig! I should point out that the text of official Japanese documents was rather different from what is typically produced by SCA "word smiths". Japanese official texts often consists of an itemized collection of statements. The itemizations are indicated by 一 at the beginning of the first column of each statement. The "kotoba" (creed) produced by the iemoto of Urasenke Society exemplifies this pattern in a modern context. Unfortunately, the tea creed appears to have disappeared from the internet, so I am having difficulty posting a link to it here.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Jan 1, 2015 15:36:44 GMT -5 solveig said:

Noble Cousins!

Greetings from Solveig! I should point out that the text of official Japanese documents was rather different from what is typically produced by SCA "word smiths".

I know, but we're often saddled with SCA local/kingdom tradition in terms of what award verbiage goes on these things. Or someone invokes the "C is for Creative" clause. You should read my AoA scroll some time. It's pretty florid.


It is my hope that I can help steer people away from tracing ukiyo-e prints and calling it good, just because it's Japanese.

[Saionji Shonagon]

OK, revisions and additions have been done. I am grateful for the sharp proofreading eyes of Sarah Thomas and Erin Kelly, for Koga-hime's gracious permission to use her handout on the Dreaded Hack Script, and for Ii Saburou Katsumori's photos.

wodefordhall.com/japanesescrolls.htm

Comments appreciated.

[Saionji Shonagon]

wodefordhall.com/japanesescrolls.htm has been updated to include a link to Ishiyama-dono's page detailing his adaptation of emaki images for use on award scroll blanks.

Watch this space for future developments. I have issued a challenge to have an award text translated for me. When I receive it, I am going to attempt to calligraph and illustrate one of two award scrolls I am still owed by my kingdom's College of Scribes. As I can just about write my name in kanji this could as easily be a train wreck as a triumph. Either way, it should be highly educational and I hope to add documentation of the process to the web page.

[Kagami Tomoko]

Jan 1, 2015 15:41:55 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

Jan 1, 2015 15:36:44 GMT -5 solveig said:

Noble Cousins!

Greetings from Solveig! I should point out that the text of official Japanese documents was rather different from what is typically produced by SCA "word smiths".

I know, but we're often saddled with SCA local/kingdom tradition in terms of what award verbiage goes on these things. Or someone invokes the "C is for Creative" clause. 

I understand that we are sometimes handcuffed with the kind of text that is used for award scrolls and the like, but if we are to use the C is for Creative appeal, what extant examples would you draw from? I scanned through a few official 8th Century documents you reference in your resources page for SCA scribes but these do not offer translations.

While scouring our own forums I have stumbled upon a thread on Tousando for scroll text translation. I've copied below the most complete listing though there are discussions after this post that dive into some of the particulars of each area. Has there been any more work on standardization?:

Mar 29, 2011 19:16:24 GMT -5 Yamanouchi Eidou said:

Suggestions for Kingdom name translations. I have styled them as kingdoms because in English they refer to themselves as kingdoms.

Aethelmearc – 森の王国
Kingdom of the Forest. The Royalty of Aethelmearc are styled as “Their Sylvan Majesties.”

Ansteorra – 星の王国 [suggested by Yamanouchi Eidou: 独星の王国]
Kingdom of the Stars. Again, from “Their Stellar Majesties”.

An Tir - 黒獅子の王国
Kingdom of the Black Lion. An Tir may mean “A Land”. I’m not sure, but there is a big fat black lion on An Tir’s Arms.

Artemisia – 蓬の王国
Kingdom of Sage (Mugwort). The plant family of Artemisia is the Sage family, including mugwort.

Atenveldt – 日の王国
Kingdom of the Sun.

Atlantia – 大西洋の王国
Kingdom of the Great Western Sea (As from the Atlantic Ocean)

Caid – 三繊月の王国
Kingdom of the Three Crescents. Caid is actually an acronym from its four principal baronies at the time of its founding, therefor eI have opted to use its heraldry as a name basis.

Calontir – 十字の王国 or 小百合の王国
Kingdom of the Cross or Kingdom of the Lilies. Calontir displays a cross of Calatrava upon its arms. Alternately, as they host Lilies War I found this to be a possibility.

Drachenwald – 竜森の王国
Kingdom of the Dragon’s Forest, translated from the German Drachenwald.

Ealdormere – 延齢草の王国 or 北の王国
Kingdom of Trillium or Kingdom of the North. The Trillium is a heavily used symbol of Ealdormere. Alternately, apparently Ealdormereans will often refer to their kingdom as the North.

East – 東の王国
Kingdom of the East

Gleann Abhann – 牡羊の王国
Kingdom of the Ram, as per kingdom heraldry.

Lochac – 光水の王国 or 南十の王国
Kingdom of the Shining Water or Kingdom of the Southern Cross. Etymologists theorize that Marco Polo’s reference to the land of Lochac (A place in Australia) may be linked to the Latin term for shining water. Alternately, the Southern Cross shows up on kingdom heraldry.

Meridies – 南の王国
Kingdom of the South. Apparently Meridies means South.

Midrealm – 中の王国
Kingdom of the Middle.

Northshield – 北盾の王国 [suggested by Solveig: 北関の王国]
Kingdom of the North Pavise (Shield)

Outlands – 外の王国 [suggested by Noriko: 野外の王国]
Outer Kingdom/ Kingdom of the Outside

Trimaris – 三海の王国
Kingdom of the Three Seas

West – 西の王国
Kingdom of the West.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Right. I have been meaning to do this for MONTHS. I figured that if I put my brush where my mouth is and tried doing the calligraphy for an SCA award text with NO prior SCA scribal experience and my only Japanese calligraphy experience being able to sign my name in kanji, maybe, just MAYBE, I could document it for the web page and maybe, just MAYBE, other SCA scribes might think it was worth trying themselves.

I packed a fude pen, a pad of sumi paper and a big art clipboard along to our Purgatorio Coronation event this weekend and did the text for the Western Lily (a teaching award) I received some years ago. No scribe has ever asked to be assigned the scroll for it, so I thought it would be fun to try to do my own if I can get good enough. Baron Foro Pallavincino of Northshield kindly furnished a translation for me.

For layout purposes, I pasted the kanji/kana into an MS Excel workbook so I could approximate spacing as an exemplar for the document itself. I printed out a couple copies, plus a copy of Foro-dono's translation and a brief paragraph on period calligraphy and an image of an Imperial edict from the Shosoin repository as an example of a legal document from period.

So, I had a muffin and a cup of tea, I perched on my shogi with the board on my lap and held with my left hand and spent probably 15-20 minutes warming up by copying random characters. (I find the curves of kana harder than kanji). I put one of the exemplars under the sumi paper so I could have an idea how to line things up and how to keep the size of each character consistent. I didn't want to deal with trying to erase ruled pencil lines.

This is the result. It did not win the calligraphy competition at the event, but that wasn't the point. I wanted to see what I could do. It has a lot of problems, but for a first attempt, I am pleased with it. I'll keep at it. Maybe someday it'll be good enough to get royal signatures and a Kingdom seal on it. www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/albums/72157657259294220

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2015 21:27:49 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

This is the result.

That was your first try? I have certainly seen (and created) worse attempts.

[Saionji Shonagon]

As I said, I'm reasonably happy with it. I had to fudge on some of the kanji simply because I couldn't see well enough to copy from my text print=out, but it LOOKS like writing. Mostly.

[Deleted]

Aug 25, 2015 13:36:55 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

As I said, I'm reasonably happy with it. I had to fudge on some of the kanji simply because I couldn't see well enough to copy from my text print=out, but it LOOKS like writing. Mostly.

Hm. If you can't borrow a light box from somebody, try putting a sheet of white paper beneath your original. I think that black felt is soaking up too much of your light.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Newly updated to include the Portuguese viceroy's letter to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (courtesy of Ii Saburou Katsumori) and my put-up-or-shut-up attempt at calligraphy. www.wodefordhall.com/japanesescrolls.htm