Who knows Seal Script ?

#chinesesmallsealscript #sealscript

WHO KNOWS SEAL SCRIPT FORMS?

You probably know the left side element is a variant of ren person / man and the top right is weather /rain as they are fairly well known but the bottom element ... the modern kaishu form is different.

One clue the word has been translated as scholar or sage but originally this word probably referred to priests of a neolithic semi-animist sky worship cult that was not Taoist.

More about this in the next post. 

Goodbye Rooster Hello Dog

#shunman, japaneseprint, rooster, dog,yearofdog,

Its a bit hard to make out the dog due to the use of surfeit and raised relief but since the Year of the Dog doesnt start until next month perhaps thats ironic? The Rooster is still bold and strong.

Our year of mostly bird theme posts gives way to dogs, canines and other animals who include the canine radical in their characters, so we'll be dealing also with foxes, wolves, and the curious case of the zhi beast amongst other themes and why Chinese has Chuan and Chow !

A reminder about Patreon

Blog followers or tweeps or whatever social media you are seeing this on !

Its NOT too late to download a #FREE #reward from my #patreon page from the December January 12 days series of #technozi.

Visit http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

and consider becoming a patron to get extras! 

Monju Manjushri Two Images

#monju #manjushri #sculpture #lacquer #buddhistdiety #buddhistart #weidynasty #japaneselacquer

Two contrasting images and mediums used to depict a Buddhist Deity.

This first image is a Eastern WEI dynasty Chinese Sculpture

The second is Japanese lacquer so combines painting and molded sculpture

One Buddhist theme two different but related cultures. 

Basic Strokes of Characters

#chinescharacters #hanzi #kanji #chinesecalligraphy

Whether you use a brush with ink a fet-ltip pen with a brush or square or narrow tip or whatever you use to write sinitic derived characters s in whatever form you need to know and practise basic strokes.

I suspect there are ten year olds who have better calligraphy than me even in kaishu however here's something tp use. Yes there are a lot of basic strokes graphics out there online.

In defence of this graphic I want to point out I used filters that create a shadow because I want to emphasize the "weight" of the stroke and that these characters can be used with colors other than black and with materials that are not ink on paper or pixels on a screen.

An Asian Duck Vase

#ceramics #duck

Something simple and almost folksy. A charming vessel depicting a duck or perhaps two ducks with the heads and tails forming handles. there was probably a missing lid ? This is probably Vietnamese but the source date was sparse on details. Enjoy!

Castiglione NOT just Horses

I was pleasantly surprised to discover while searching for images for the upcoming Year of the Dog to discover #Castiglione the priest who became a Chinese Imperial Court Painter
didn't just do horses and dogs ...

Though I do strongly suspect as with other Ming and Qing paintings that possibly the bird subjects were in an aviary or jessed in a garden. Either that or the painter has deliberately combined thing he'd seen in the Imperial collections as the rocks look rather like the type used in the Chinese equivalent of "Dry" gardens or bonsai ???

Its a rather odd piece by both European and Chinese aesthetic standards but pleasing eccentric which was perhaps part of the appeal of his fusion style?

Koson Print

#oharakoson #koson #rooster #yearoftherooster #japaneseprint

The Year of the Rooster doesnt end until February so I have a few more pieces to share

Note the beautiful background gradient and the excellent use of the white paper plus some subtle tints to depict the roosters feathers. The pale tints on the chicks counterbalance with the red of the crest .