O-bon lanterns! Let's make some.

I haven't been able to get to the o-Bon festival at 松風荘 this evening, so I think I'll make lanterns for my windows. We need 季語 kigo, seasonal words, appropriate for o-Bon; we consult this kigo site, among many, and choose 魂祭 tamamatsuri, soul festival—what right-thinking ancestor wouldn't be attracted by that? 

Next, we need examples. (I don't mind writing badly if only I and the dead will see it.) Hao86—Chinese site, so I think 书法 shufa, vs 書法 shohou; both vs 書道 shodou, "the way of" calligraphy—has examples of everything, in multiple scripts, attributed—or, at least, it seems to be trying to, as some areas are a bit bare—so we look there. Hao offers five style categories:

行书　(行書　gyousho　semi-cursive/"running" script)

楷书　(楷書　kaisho　standard/regular/"block" script)

草书　(草書　sousho　cursive/"grass" script, very stylized)

隶书　(隷書　reisho　clerical script*)

篆书　(篆書　tensho　seal script, for stamping documents)

*"Clerical script" may be a euphemism, as Jisho defines 隷 as "slave, servant, prisoner, criminal, follower".

Helpful, for picking out forms we find interesting and would like to practice a bit. 例えば:　 

魂　

This one preserves the shape nicely, has the shape I like for the "animal legs" radical (stab left, sweep right!), and sort of casts off the little two-stroke oni 鬼 triangle, into almost a barbed tail:

(about the artist, YU Boqing 徐伯清, current, Shanghai)

...but this one is irresistible—look how it stacks the radicals:

 

(about the artist, ZHANG Ruitu 張瑞圖, 1570–1641 / works) 

Maybe handle the "speech" radical 云 (which I somehow think of as steam/mist/vapor, which certainly works here) with sort of a rightward dot, strong horizontal, elbow, take a moment at the end, launch into the vertical for 田; loop and tie, then into the legs, and the styling final dot that makes your 厶 but also seems a quintessentially 書道 thing to do. I think. Or something. Anyway, it looks fun to try.

 祭はねー。。。

Matsuri is pretty much a prayer/altar (示, 礻) under the "dotted tent" radical (癶); Henshall says the parts are literally a hand placing meat (⺼, with interesting/confounding overlap with 月 moon) onto an altar. Seems to pack in the connotation of sacrifice. Perfect for a soulfest. I'm not finding the right thing on Hao, so on to general search; we don't want to mix styles, but I'm loving this lean one, because it looks a bit like a person releasing 灯籠 tourou paper lanterns:

(about the artist, ZHANG Jizhi 张即之, 1186–1263)

In gyou and sou styles, the altar tends to look a bit like a hiragana ふ fu, which derives from kanji 不.

But it's fun when kanji look like stuff. Maybe there's some room to play with that "meat" radical, since it suggests both the moon (月) and night (夕)—great for a lantern. (I'm thinking of examples of 月 I've seen that recline, almost to a 夕-like angle.)

I have two big windows, so maybe I'll make two lanterns and not worry about matching styles. Next up: ink! And to choose a 筆 that will be kind to me. I have some glasses, so the thought is to write the kanji on whatever (paper or maybe napkins—not good paper, but something with some kind of character) and wrap it around a glass so the candles won't cause a 盆fire. Vamos a ver. イクゾね。

I've been hoarding recyclable egg cartons and an old window screen because one of these years I'm going to make paper, I swear.

Also on the list to explore: shufalife.com.

不安も心配も増えているね。

本当, some of the best learning happens from songs. Was just doing an exercise about the stock market and trying to remember a word for increasing, and into my head popped the opening lines of a song 先生 turned me on to—井上陽水 INOUE Yousui, 傘がない "Kasa ga Nai" ("I Have No Umbrella")—

都会では自殺する若者が増えている
Tokai de ha jisatsu suru wakamono ga fueteiru
今朝来た新聞の片隅に書いていた
Kesa kita shinbun no katasumi ni kaiteita

Written in the corner of this morning's paper: the city's suicide rate is increasing. That's the word I wanted—増.える fueru, to increase.

Songs are great for sticking vocab and grammar into one's head. Must pursue more Japanese radio.

On a related note, or in related news—the time has come to register for the JLPT, yet again; for a few years, when I was pretty much taking no part in the outside world, I registered but didn't actually do it. So, the eternal question: which level? There are a thousand guides and advice threads about it, but it's a roll of the dice. I passed the former level 4, I think more than 10 years ago; now there are five levels, N1 being the toughest. I'm encouraged by the shockingly low minimal point totals needed to pass—even for N1, essentially the equivalent of fluency, in each of language, reading, and listening, a score of less than 33% (19/60) is enough to pass. Of course, not knowing one certain kanji, or using で rather than に, or getting bogged down in parsing a spoken year, can cost you the item. N5 probably wouldn't be much of an achievement; N4 wouldn't look like much progress over the old 4 I have; maybe N3 would be possible. Will have to consult the guides. I've broken out the 扉 textbook and my kanji flashcards and apps; maybe N3 isn't unreasonable, by December. I'll need to decide within the next few days.

That the hospital and the beauty salon sound so similar seems a disaster waiting to happen, if it hasn't happened already.

病院 byouin hospital
美容院 biyouin beauty salon

(I mean, I guess if you're going in for cosmetic surgery.)

Just did an exercise in which my voice interface tragicomically misjudged the seriousness of the situation. "Ohhhhh.... You wanted the HOSPITAL?!" laugh track

Speaking of laugh tracks...I see I have some 70 drafts here, going back ten years. I should take a look through.

In a field, wishing for the ball.

I guess if one grows up with kanji, everything I'm always discovering about them is obvious, but for me it's a long road. Initially I balked at the idea of making up little stories to remember the radicals—as I have at hearing kanji referred to as little friends—but by now I'm 超 into that.

ATM I'm thinking about baseball, yakyuu. 野球. The first kanjus is ya, a field, the countryside; fair enough. The second, if we agree not to deal with 水 mizu water, consists of two parts, more or less: 玉 tama, a sphere or ball, and 求 moto.meru, to ask for or wish for. Ie, baseball is literally being in a field, hoping for the ball. (In my own school experience, only the first half fits.)

The next question will be the difference between 玉 and 球, noting that 玉 + 水 does make sense for a bead of sweat.

Now I'm wondering about 珠, also tama, but this time with—something—and from there 侏....

Also to be interrogated is the mental process by which I read 野 as inaka. Something in there must have read it by meaning; inaka is similar in meaning but is 田舎, a rice field (which looks like a rice field, divided into paddies) + a house/hut (conveniently showing yane roof, in the form of 人 hito a person, and 口 kuchi entrance).

For fun, here's a tribute in rice paddies to the Japanese rugby team, 2019:

(story)

For additional fun, note that rugby is 闘球, making war (戦 tataka.u) and wishing for the ball.

がはは >:-D （今朝の冗談）

パンダの好きな餌は？

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パンだ。

目を覚す (opening the eyes).

So I like to write things to hang around the house that may seem (or be) trite/cheesy but are meaningful to me, or that keep nagging at me to write them until I do, even if I do so crudely on telephone book paper. (I say it's OK to do something to an "ish" standard, so it's done, until you can do it better, vs not doing it at all.)

A while ago I was low-key obsessed with 息 iki breath, because I really do need a reminder to breathe and it seemed particularly relevant during COVID; before that it was 浅き夢見じ酔いもせず asaki yume miji ei mo sezu, a line from the mega-classic Iroha that I find worth keeping in mind—we will not have shallow dreams, nor live senseless. (酔 speaks to drunkenness and tends to be read as delusion, but the idea of losing one's senses in the world spans the two, more or less.)

At the moment I'm interested in 目を覚す me o samasu, to open the eyes; it's used for alarm clocks and regaining consciousness but also, at least to me*, carries a connotation of awakening in the more transcendent sense. (Can't be a coincidence, that the same kanji is used for one of the learning verbs, 覚える oboeru.) A good 書 to post near the bed, perhaps near the alarm clock 目覚まし時計 mezamashidokei, the eye-opening clock. "Wake up! Regain your senses! Enlightenment time!" I go through life generally "benighted"—the same idea in English, of being in darkness—so I'll check out some examples in the Book. I often wonder whether it would be meaningful to write Japanese phrases in just the kanji—目覚. I'll have to take a look at some examples of 目; relatively simple, but "eye" probably has some dramatic expressions.

*Not just to me; Jisho gives 覚 as a form of 悟・る sato・ru, "to perceive; to sense; to discern; to understand; to comprehend; to realize; to attain enlightenment".

Japanese House in Philly broken into and vandalized!!!

$2 million in damages, including to the Senju.

No punishment can suffice for a crime against art and beauty.

Surprisingly cold.

I've been quiet for a long time, but I still do my Japanese lessons every day; I've been in the diamond league on Duolingo for 250 days straight now. A sentence from yesterday has stuck with me, in that I find it kind of poetic:

谷川の水驚くほど全て買った
tanigawa no mizu ha
odoroku hodo tsumetakatta

The syllabication is off, of course, but—

the water of the mountain stream—
surprisingly cold

I find that stark and delicious. Like a plum saved for breakfast. (How would one write it? Maybe add some, to 57577 it. #hmm)

This Is Just To Say
wm carlos williams, 1938

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

A thing that's silly and works is a thing that works.

Over the years I've made fun (in my head) of Heisig for making up little phrases or sentences from kanji radicals as mnemonics for the overall meaning, but maybe I just didn't like his. Telling little stories about kanji really does help. Eg, 退屈 たいくつ taikutsu, bored:

艮 good
⻌ street
出 leaving / exiting / emerging from
尸 door

Bored: It's good in the street, so I'm out the door.

(Even better: 屈 also phonetically is shoes 靴, so I'm so out of here that I'm literally 退ing my shoes....)