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2000-2001 http://www.arttoday.com
The impression of vastness, of vacuity present in the Zen garden
reflects, in a sense, the Japanese writing. The shape of the letters
evoke a tree, a brook, a pebble. The hand reproduces windy lakes as
the brush plots inky stains and splashing tiny lines. There is at the
same time a sense of the relievo and a sense of the correspondence
between the real and the unreal, the brush stroke and the material
world.
If one looks closely, it appears that the Japanese script tries to
reproduce flowers’ posies and abandoned fences. And no wonder
since the ideograms actually represent natural objects in a extremely
simplified way. The Zen garden is ornamented with wild Azaleas
growing in thousands along trellised vines. These plants are usually
gathered into three to four feet high salmon bushes. Very striking!
The fences made of bamboo and of braided reeds, secured by straw
shoots and tree barks are always loosely aired, allowing a large view
over the background landscape. Can't anyone imagine the bamboo
barriers forsaken on purpose like numerous calligraphies?
For example, the representation of the mountain
2000-2001 http://www.arttoday.com
in the Japanese mind became a symbol that looks like a barrier or a
bamboo gate:
.
20
Man (rèn)
Woman (n
u)
Sun (rì)
Moon (yuè)
Above (shàng)
Below (xià)
Examples of the evolution of the Kanji through time
This evolution was not inherited by chance. The writer-artist of Kana
is very much valued for his ability to KUZUSU, i.e., for breaking the
characters, for his running handwriting. Sometimes, the scrolls are
even illegible. In the same spirit, the Zen garden is not concerned
with geometrical lines and is expected to inspire the scattering. The
elusiveness has become in a way a virtue through the calligraphy."
I wandered about in Ibrâhim’s flat. I paid attention to the
great cultural encounter that took place between its walls. Here, the
Arabic calligraphy created to represent falling leaves, fruits,
intertwined lianas had met the Kanji spiritual world.
A friend from China gave him an oval piece of wood trimmed with a
red and coarsely-threaded weaving. On the pine wood, an upper pen
plot represents the Bonzai; an inferior tracing represents rice grains.
The ideogram reads: ‘Peacefully’. 'Peace' in Japanese is written
down with two compound characters reading: heiwa
.
Calligraphy courtesy of Nihad
Dukhan: http://www.ndukhan.com/
Left:
(A calligraphy of the Arabic
word 'peace," -- salam)
In a room nearby, Ibrâhim has
hanged a calligraphy meaning to
represent 'the Peace’
.
It is the same word 'salam' that every Muslim say to each other upon
meeting; it is the same root word for 'Islam'. He informs me that
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