Zen Calligraphy Vocabulary

The Hitsuzen meeting starts with hanging calligraphy scrolls on the walls. We study each word and evaluate them on a sheet of paper.

Here are some of the categories for the rankings:

(working between two dictionaries to try to translate them)

　

　

Category	Term	Individual kanji	pronunciation	meaning
	墨気		ぼっき Bokki	Ink energy
天然			てんねん tennen	nature, spontenaiety
	靭性		じんせい jinsei
		靭	ジン　うつぼしな	soft, pliable, quiver
		性	せい	nature, unchanged by external influences
			しなやかさ	flexiblity
	温順		おんじゅん onjyun	obey – restraint?
		温		warm
		順		order, docile, obey
	洗練		せんれん senren	polish, refinement
	規模		きぼ kibo	scale, scope, plan, structure
	貫禄		かんらく kanraku	presence, dignify
構成			こうせい kousei	organization, composition
	変化		へんか henka	change, variation variety, diversity
気脈			きみゃく kimyaku	blood vessel, conspiracy, collusion, secret communiation (this is my new favorite word)
	字間		じかん jikan	space between letters or characters
	行間		ぎょうかん kyoukan	spacing in text, between the lines
	リズム感		リズムかん rizumukan	rhythmical sense
余白			よはく yokaku
			らかん
		落	おちる	fall, drop, come down, village, hamlet
	署名		しょめい shomei	signature
	印		いん in	hanko – seal, name stamp
		調	チョウ　しらべる	tune, tone, meter. writing style, prepare, exorcise
		和	わ	sum, harmony, peace, Japanese style
調和			ちょうわ chouwa	harmony
	紙墨の和			the harmony of ink and paper
		境	キョウケイ　さかい	boundary, border, region
		涯	はて　ガイ	horizon shore
境涯			きょうがい kyougai	circumstances, situation,  one’s lot in life
	心境		しんきょう shinkyou	mental state
	自然さ		しぜんさ shizensa	naturalness
	幽玄		ゆうげん	subtle grace
	簡素		かんそ yuugen	simplicity, plane
		枯	コ　かれる	wither, dry up
素材			そざい sozai	raw material subject matter
		題	ダイ	topic, subject
	題材		だいざい	subject, theme
		題材　字、句		theme of word/character or verse
表装			ひょうそう hyousou	mounting, binding
保存			ほぞん hozon	preservation, storage, does it feel old?