Monday, November 23, 2009

Kuzushi in Seal Script

I have been working on a calligraphy project for the Kaze Uta Budo Kai for the past week. The practice has been like a visit from an old friend and the ink has been flowing in my chamber of solitude.

I am very fond of seal script, or Tensho in Japanese. Not very many calligraphers are into the style. I myself like the ancient feelings it evokes.

Seal Script

So I have been learning to use my scanner and convert files. Here is the first piece of my simple calligraphy as I begin training again.



The character is 'Ho,Kuzu' For the philosophers of throwing technique, kuzushi is the magic element of the throw.

The character literally means - crumble, collapse, destroy, pull down, cave in, to get out of shape, degenerate, level, or cause to be relaxed.

In the modern character the pictographic form is of a mountain with two moons under it. I do not know some of the radicals on this ancient form.

Kanji Dictionary, look at third character down on list

If you look into it I can see the idea emerging. A mountain is on top. Forces are moving under it, destablising it. Interesting to see three bands of motion under it. Bill Parker Sensei taught a seminar at KyuRyu where distorting the uke in three directions at once was a critical idea of efficient throws. As the mountain is moved from underneath, the logicial conclusion is for it to crumble down the slope.

1 comment:

  1. Very cool. I saw one of the items you e-mailed to Nick while we were working on some of the YouTube project the other day. Very cool. Looking forward to seeing you next month!

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