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Event Description
TANKA Workshop #3
It was rather unusually warm and calm late fall day that was felt so nice, and it was the day we had Tanka workshop. Today’s subject was “?:Sky/Air”- not just simply about “Sky” but also use the image from the phrase: When a single letter of “?” was combined with other letters it becomes individually established Kanji vocabulary, such as “??: Atmosphere”, “???: (a Sky which makes you feel) Emotion”, “??: Aerial”, “??: Imagination” or “??: Air”.
The word “Sky” has been frequently appeared in poem since “Man-yo (literature collection issued in late 8 century)” period since the letter was easily adapted with others to create other character which could be used to express freely in many ways of impression since these vocabularies are part of our living and life. The one’s feeling was expressed in these different phrases. By writing about “Sky” you’d be describing your heart feeling. It was indeed very touching to find some of today’s participants had expressed their emotions in the letter “Sky”. It is no doubt that by restudying the very familiar sky, some may have felt deep closeness to the nostalgia in the character. You may be using letters without thinking, but you would realize some have a long history. You may also learn Tanka poem contains some vocabularies in deep emotions or time, and by composing Tanka with such significant vocabularies it’d give a life to it.
At the end of today’s workshop, all participants were suggested to obtain Shikishi paper and Tanzaku (the long narrow strip of fancy paper for poem) for each to display final works at the upcoming Year-end luncheon. It was recommended to use black ink except pencil or ballpoint pens (calligraphy brush, brush-pen or magic marker would be more appropriate) for the finish. We all look forward to seeing everyone’s work.
We had our regular tea time with snacks each brought in while exchanging information in pleasant conversation. It’ll be the 9th year of our Tanka workshop next year which is the year of Dog. I sincerely hope that we could keep each one’s enthusiasm and loyalty to each other.
Chikako Mori
Tanka Instructor
(Translated by ms)
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