Jim O'Neil's photos with the keyword: kanji

尊卑 or そんぴ which might be pronounced sonpi (Hopefully one of my nihonjin buddies will correct me if I'm wrong) means something like aristocrat and plebeian. Japanese kanji are fun! The first one making up this compound kanji, 尊, means something like revered, valuable, precious, noble or exalted. The second one, 卑, means lowly, base vile, vulgar. So! One could translate this as aristocrat and no account common trash. :-) Speaking of how interesting kanji can be, I was going to go into a long explanation of why the old name of Japan Wa, 倭, given to them by the Chinese, was, in the eighth century, changed to Wa, 和, as the old name for Japan. ….-but I won't. :-) Brushed ink on 12 by 12 inch colored card stock.

So, so, so! Just in case I decide I wanna be a manga artist when I grow up, I figure I better start practicing the style. Sigh, I know if Kumikosan, or Tomosan, or Marikosan or Shinsan look at this, any or all of them will say (Hiroshisan and Natsuosan won't say, they're much too polite- but they'll think it!): "Darnit Jim! For Balloon you shoulda used the 気 球 kanji, not 風船! Also in 'where' (何処) your stroke order was all wrong!! Don't you know anything?" Yea, yea, guys, go ahead, pick on the poor gaijin, I've got broad shoulders! -grin- Brush pen on 12 by 12 inch colored stock.

My daughter asked me to write (draw, sketch, paint?) this kanji for her office. It means reflection; reconsideration; introspection; meditation; contemplation, -according to Jim Breen's online Japanese/English dictionary (A most excellent resource, by the way.). To mount the finished kanji: I dampened the paper, carefully brushed out any wrinkles and flattened in on a stainless steel surface, dampened the mounting sheet and applied paste to it, laid it carefully over the rice paper brushing out any air bubbles, lifted the mounted sheet off the steel underplate and dried with an old, large, photo dryer. 9"X16" "rice" paper mounted on Bristol board.

This gives some idea of just how thin this "rice" paper is hence the need to mount on heavier stock.

元旦,いえ. Gantan; the first kanji of the new year. It is customary, especially for school children in Japan, to carefully write a kanji to celebrate the start of the new year. Often the Kanji is carefully considered to express a mood or a profound thought. I couldn't think of ______ so.....

Snob! :-)