The Kumano Brush Festival

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Kumano is a small town of about 25 000 people, located about an hour away from Hiroshima City. In this small town, 80% of all calligraphy brushes in Japan are produced. Every year, the town has a brush festival, in which people go to "honour" old brushes and calligraphy is demonstrated.

I originally found out about this festival from one of my students, who is from Kumano, and was doing a speech on the event. He gave me a piece of paper with the kanji name of the bus we should take, and Alexis and I decided to check it out...so glad we did!

At the festival we saw the "eternal brush burning flame" (as I like to call it!) in which old brushes are burned and honoured. There were also many brushes "hanging around" the town, and numerous brushes for sale. We were able to buy a brush, and have our names carved in the handle.

We also got to see calligraphy demonstrations by calligraphers who obviously knew what they were doing!

The highlight of the day was when we got to try calligraphy ourselves. I picked a kanji symbol, and it turned out to be the symbol for "happiness", which I of course, was very happy about! We were guided by students on a few practice sheets (for the first one, the student literally led my hand across the entire paper!), and then we were told "gambatte kudasai" (if you remember Mt. Fuji, Japanese for "try your hardest please!" or "break a leg!") and given the official scroll paper. After I was done, a round of applause was given for my efforts...funny! And the fun continued....throughout the rest of the day we had people stop us, and ask to see our calligraphy scrolls. At one point, we unrolled them to show a couple, and the man began furiously snapping pictures. Hilarious! There were also many murmurs of "yokatta"! (good!)

After my awe-inspiring calligraphy debut, perhaps I'll have to take it up as a hobby!

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Photos

Hanging around...
These are just some of the many calligraphy brushes that could be found hanging around Kumano for the brush festival

The Eternal Flame
Where old brushes go to "sleep"

Seiji, a calligrapher in the making
This is a young calligrapher named Seiji doing a calligraphy demonstration. This art appears to be taken very seriously...there is a deep bow given before the calligraphy is begun, and silence falls over the audience as the calligrapher works. Seiji began to help me as I tried my hand at calligraphy, but then had to run...his fans were calling I guess!

The Master of the Brush
From what I gathered, this was the "ultra brush master..." The Man, the Myth, the Legend....We all gathered 'round the canvas, and watched, barely breathing, as he made each painstakingly planned stroke....And...

...The Piece de Resistance!
An octopus! Interesting, very interesting....kinda makes one think of takoyaki (mmmm, takoyaki;)

My Piece de Resistance!
The one that drew all the ooohs and aaahs! This is the kanji for happiness, created by me, which is now hanging proudly on my wall. On the left side you will notice my name written in katakana, which is the Japanese alphabet used for writing foreign words. It reads "Su-te-shi-O-su-ta-ma-n". A.k.a. "Steyshi":)

Proof in the pudding (or calligraphy ink)
The only picture of me at the brush festival...I was there! I swear! Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of me doing the calligraphy. But ask any expert calligrapher, and I'm sure they'll attest that my calligraphy was indeed done by an amateur.

A view of Kumano
A lovely little town!

Comments

[ashley]

That is cool! I think the picture is beautiful!!

[Andrew]

Great job!
Hey Stacey, your piece de resistance looks fantastic! Very beautiful...