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| In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
I am always looking for hand lettering and different ways to display it. When we lived in Japan, we often walked the grounds of a shrine or temple, especially during the first week of the New Year. Hundreds of omikuji and ema hung from tree branches and bamboo rods. We watched as people clustered at a window where a monk provided either small pieces of paper with fortunes on them or wooden tablets with traditional Japanese design motifs. People wrapped the paper fortunes (omikuji) on railings and tree branches. They wrote prayers for success at exams or other favorable outcomes on the wooden tablets (ema) that also hung clustered together from red strings on boards near the monks' shop.
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| EMA photo by Bill Slavin |
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| OMIKUJI photo by Bill Slavin |
Collecting quotes provides me with a way to practice hand lettering. Even if quotes were first written hundreds of years ago, sometimes the right words together can make me consider the present-day implications of the quote. When I find a quote that resonates, I write it down on a Weathergram. Lloyd Reynolds, an art and calligraphy instructor at Reed College in Oregon, invented Weathergrams, which are 10-word poems that convey fleeting moments of interaction with nature. He often wrote the quotes on paper bags, which he would hang on tree branches. His inspiration for Weathergrams came from the Japanese sense of impermanence known as Wabi-Sabi and from the omikuji and ema at Japanese temples.
To make a Weathergram, all you need is a paper bag to write on. Sometimes you can write the first letter or word in red ink. You can make a list of words or write down your impressions of looking out a window or do what I am doing: write down quotes that mean something to you.
Hand them from a tree branch where other people can see them too and know that the weather will quicken their ephemerality.
Read about Lloyd Reynolds here:
https://www.reed.edu/calligraphy/history.html
Christine Colasurdo, a calligrapher teacher, teaches Weathergrams in her courses:
http://www.christinecolasurdo.com
Rachell Hazell writes a beautiful blog about bookbinding:
https://www.thetravellingbookbinder.com/category/blog/
Kristine Mietzner has started a travel blog. What better way to spend time while we begin 2021.
Fantastic Martha. I saw and read some of these posts when we visited Japan in 1996. I was fascinated with the variety of post and from people all over the world. I never had a name for them. Thanks for sharing. It has taken me years but I finally have pieced together a true story from Japan between my father and Dr. Aoi. They became friends immediately after WWII. It is called He Was A Good Man on Literally Letty.
ReplyDeleteAlso, wanted to tell you how different our stories are in the collection of Living in the Time of Covid, and how much I have enjoyed them. Letty
We all have so many connections that we may not know about until someone shares a story. Thank you for writing about your father and Dr. Aoi. When we first moved to Japan, we weren't sure what our reception would be, even after all the years since WWII. We were delighted by the welcome (even by a group of former pilots who had trained to be kamikaze. Your dad's relationship must have made a difference after the war. Thanks for reading my post. Another friend, Joan Stevenson is also included in the Living in the Time of Covid. I have seen how difference each person's reaction to the pandemic has been while Zooming with friends. The California State Library is collecting COVID stories. Is something similar happening in Oklahoma too?
DeleteWhat a fascinating idea...hmm...
ReplyDeletedo I have the tree that can hang the message that is close enough for people will see?
Or...Will strangers walk up my path to the door?
I guess I should just make a message large enough that it won't be missed.
and that will entice the curious passerby to
Try it, Jan. we need Weathergram tree!
Delete