2021.11 Enmar's White Scarf Wall Scroll

In November 2021, I was asked to make Lord Fujina "Enmar" Sadatoshi's award scroll for his elevation to the Order of the White Scarf.

Here is Enmar's OP listing: https://op.atlantia.sca.org/op_ind.php?atlantian_id=9919

At the time, I did not know Enmar very well, other than that he favored a Japanese persona and was a member of my primary Household, the Condottieri. I entreated one of his friends and teachers, Noble Ulfarr Refskegg, for details about what he might want. I learned that he loves chickens and cuttlefish, our Household white ocean dragon, and Japanese art. Monty kindly agreed to wordsmith the scroll, and I set out to design a scroll that would incorporate all the elements that I hoped Enmar might like.

Here is Ulfarr's OP listing: https://op.atlantia.sca.org/op_ind.php?atlantian_id=8144

First, I had to choose the format of the scroll. When possible, I prefer to create non-traditional scrolls, because I enjoy the challenge. Since I had already created a scroll for Enmar in the past that was inked upon a silk fan, I decided to make a wall hanging for him.

"Poem on the Theme of Snow": https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60467

I found this image in the Met Museum's archives. It is a Poem on the Theme of Snow from the Japanese poet Musō Soseki, the most famous Zen priest active primarily in the Nanbokuchō period of the Muromachi shogunate from 1275–1351 CE. The medium of the original was ink on paper, with a silk backing.

Link to Met Museum page for "Poem on the Theme of Snow": https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60467

Our hero, Musō Soseki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C5%8D_Soseki#/media/File:Muso_Soseki.jpg

I chose this format because I enjoyed the bold borders around the calligraphy page, and the vertical detail stripes gave me an idea of how to echo the design of the White Scarf in the scroll itself.

Other examples of this style of Japanese wall hanging during Musō Soseki's lifetime:

"Triptych of White-robed Kannon, Kanzan, and Jittoku," Nanbokuchō-Muromachi period, estimated 1300-1400 CE
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/816191
"Poem in Chinese about Sugar," Nanbokuchō period, estimated 1300-1400 CE
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/42693
"Letter to Suwa Daishin, Officer of the Shogun," Nanbokuchō period, estimated 1339-1351 CE
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60468

A close up I took of the silk backing with ribbon stripe from the wall hanging I created.

My Work

I purchased a yard of 54" tricolore 2-ply dupioni silk in the color "blizzard" from Silk Baron online, to use as the main silk backing for the wall hanging.

Link to product: https://www.silkbaron.com/product_p/1143.htm

I purchased wide blue silk ribbon to sew down the center, to echo the silk ribbon vertical stripes from Musō Soseki's piece as well as the design of the Atlantian White Scarf, which is white silk featuring a blue stripe down the center.

Blue silk ribbon and the white contrasting thread with which I attached it to the backing were purchased from my local Michael's craft store.

A closeup I took of the end of the top dowel with completed kumihimo braid attached, with shallow cut grooves and blue silk ribbon border visible.

I purchased two thick 1" diameter wooden dowels from Michael's to stabilize the top and the bottom of the wall hanging. I cut them to be just 4" longer than the width of the paper I intended to paint, so they would extend just a little past the borders of the wall scroll, as in the original.

I then cut shallow grooves near the ends of the top dowel with a hand saw, so that the cord would have better grip and not slip inward with the weight of the scroll.

Thank you to my Peer, Master Valgard av Mors, for lending me his hand saw.

Mors' OP Listing: https://op.atlantia.sca.org/op_ind.php?atlantian_id=3380

I am aware that these dowels were considerably thicker than that which was used in Musō Soseki's work. However, I knew this scroll would be given on the field at an outdoor SCA event, and I wanted it to be very strong, so as not to break with rough handling. Thus, the very thick and strong materials.

For the hanging cord, I hand-wove a kumihimo braid in blue and black using embroidery floss purchased from Michael's, then tied the ends to the top dowel, making sure they were very tightly tied and gripping the shallow grooves I had cut previously.

For the paper, I chose to use an 11"x14" sheet of pergamenata heavyweight paper in the color Natural (Antique), purchased from John Neal Booksellers. Although this was not the material that would have been used in the time period, which would likely have been rice paper, this is what I had on hand, and so that is what I used.

Link to Product: https://www.johnnealbooks.com/product/pergamenata-11x14-pack-10-sheets

Next, I searched for design inspiration for the depiction of Enmar.

The original wall hanging featured only calligraphy and no illustration. However, there were other examples in the time period of wall hangings and hand scrolls that featured elaborate decoration as well as calligraphic text. Examples of combination illustration and text:

"Reeds and Geese," Nanbokuchō period, 1343 CE
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44855
"Kongara-doji," Nanbokuchō period, 1387 CE (slightly after Musō Soseki)
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45606
"Monju Bosatsu with Eight Sacred Sanskrit Syllables," Nanbokuchō period, estimated 1336-1392 CE
- - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45596

I searched for images that featured swords, because the White Scarf awards skill in swordsmanship. I found a scroll that was visually impactful to me, because of its dramatic flames and action scenes of fighters with swords. Below is the full image of "Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace," a large scroll from the late Kamakura period in the second half of the 13th century. Please note that while this piece was not created within Nanbokuchō-Muromachi period as many of the other previous examples, it was still contemporary with the lifetime of Musō Soseki, since he lived through the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

"Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace" fully unrolled (right side above, left side below). https://collections.mfa.org/objects/24523/night-attack-on-the-sanjo-palace-from-the-illustrated-scrol;jsessionid=70B22DDCCE6F05BA1037A0AEB5B6DE3F?ctx=3bc166e4-35e6-4e90-8422-c45c4a7eb9aa&idx=2

Link to "Night Attack" page on the Boston Museum of Fine Arts website: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/24523/night-attack-on-the-sanjo-palace-from-the-illustrated-scrol;jsessionid=70B22DDCCE6F05BA1037A0AEB5B6DE3F?ctx=3bc166e4-35e6-4e90-8422-c45c4a7eb9aa&idx=2

This is a small portion of the above scroll, "Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace," that I found particularly compelling. This figure can be found in the lower right hand corner of the original scroll, to just under and to the right of the flames. This fighter has a lot of movement in their depiction, and I thought it would be a good figure upon which to base my depiction of Enmar.

This is a close up of the flames and smoke from "Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace." I liked the contrast of the shades, and the sinuous curling of the smoke. I thought it would be visually pleasing as a background to Enmar. I also knew that I could use other parts of the flames to represent water, since Enmar is an Atlantian, from an oceanic-themed kingdom.

Third, I needed an image of a sea dragon, to represent the Condottieri Household's support of Enmar in battle.

I searched through the archives and had difficulty finding a Japanese sea dragon that was concurrent with the lifetime of Musō Soseki. I did, however, find an example of a Chinese sea dragon from that time period.

"Beneficent Rain" is a Chinese handscroll in ink on silk made in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 CE) by the artist and Zhengyi Daoist head priest Zhang Yucai (died 1316 CE). Since he and Musō Soseki had similar lifetimes and were both extremely famous priests of their respective countries, and operated on a national and international stage in neighboring lands, it is possible that they knew of each others' existence, or perhaps even met.

Therefore, I felt only a little compunction about including this Chinese sea dragon in an otherwise Japanese piece.

"Beneficient Rain": https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40454

Unfortunately, I could not locate an image online of the scroll in its entirety. To the left is a small section of the hand scroll, that well features one of the sea dragons in good detail.

The MET's page for "Beneficient Rain": https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40454

Fourth, I needed supplemental images of chickens and cuttlefish. Unfortunately, I could not find any historically appropriate images of these animals in extant art. Therefore, I used my personal knowledge of what a cuttlefish and chicken look like, and then stylized them to better match the other artistic inspirations I had sourced. This was the last of the image sourcing I needed to start assembling my vision for the piece.

My Work

It was time to put all of the major design inspirations together, to create a layout draft of the final piece. I used MS Paint to roughly place the pieces I liked best from the artistic references I had gathered, to use as a reference when it came time to set ink to paper.

Then, because the original piece by Musō Soseki was in all black ink and I wanted to maintain that overall appearance, I used a simple filter in MS Paint to change the rough layout I had created into a purely grayscale image.

I hardly ever trace, so it was not needed for the layout image to be beautiful, or exactly how I wanted the finished piece to look. It was only to determine general proportion and positioning.

I received the completed scroll text from Lord Ulfarr Refskegg at this point. Here are his words:

"Swift as the wind is the Samurai as he charges with courage into battle. He relentlessly drives back his foes, always with a response to any threat. Onward and onward he comes, until his opponent no longer has an answer, and falls to a flash of the samurai’s blade.

The samurai is not alone on the field. For around him are the many fearsome warriors that he has trained. He uses his skill as a teacher to ensure that his deadly prowess is passed from generation to generation.

The samurai is always there to help in times of need. His devotion to others is never in doubt. Fujina Sadatoshi Sama is this samurai.

In recognition of his fine deeds we Eckehard, King, and Jane, Queen do induct Fujina Sadatoshi Sama into our Order of the White Scarf, and promote him to the rank of Provost of the Academie d’Espee. Further, we do grant him arms. Done this 20th day of November A.S. 56."

A close-up photo I took of the crow quill characters I wrote in Japanese. Hand-stitched frame binding to the blue silk ribbon border also visible.

My Work

I entered Lord Ulfarr's words into Google Translate, and then had a friend of mine who is fluent in Japanese correct any mistranslations. For the proper nouns, I used transliteration to record an approximation of the pronunciation of the names. This is the writing equivalent of "sounding it out."

I wrote the resulting Japanese text onto the paper using a crow quill pen. Though the original work by Musō Soseki was masterfully crafted brushwork, I had very little space within which to work and even less experience at Japanese brushwork calligraphy. Therefore, I made a concession unto efficiency and used just a very small, thin crow quill pen nib so I could do my best to fit all the words in a very limited space.

I also added in the symbol of the White Scarf above the text, with a small red border for to better make it look like a seal stamp. More details on that in the next section.

In the picture, you can also see the border I created from the blue silk ribbon all around the scroll, to hold it in place. The corner stabilizing stitches and the contrasting white diagonal stitches along the side were hand-sewn. While these details were not present in the original piece, they were necessary because I did not glue the page to the silk backing, but rather I trapped it between the silk and a pane of glass, which I sewed into the frame.

I sewed the pane of glass into the frame because I did not want the scroll to be ruined by the elements, since the scroll was due to be awarded outdoors on the list field at an event. This was not at all historical, but it was good to protect the piece.

While I love writing scroll text in the language appropriate for the origin of the original piece, I do not like that the recipient and any viewers may never know what the scroll actually says about the recipient and their accomplishments. Therefore, I sought a means of hiding the english text Lord Ulfarr provided somewhere within the art.

I recalled seeing red circular or square stamps in the corners of many of the pieces I viewed on the MET website while I was researching Nanbokuchō-Muromachi period wall scrolls earlier. I researched this phenomena and learned about the extremely interesting reason for these small corner accents.

A closeup of the corner of "Reeds and Geese," featuring the faded inkan stamp of the hanko seal of one of its previous owners. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44855

According to the Chinese Online Museum (https://www.comuseum.com/culture/seals/), from as early as 544 BC, individuals used seals pressed into red cinnabar ink to stamp pieces of art they had collected. The stamp featured characters identifying the owner by name.

Though this was a Chinese practice, examples of these seals used on Japanese art in the Nanbokuchō period was visible in this previously mentioned piece:

"Reeds and Geese," Nanbokuchō period, 1343 CE

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44855

While in history, the seals featured the name of the scroll's owner, I did not feel I could fit the transliterated pronunciation of the Kingdom of Atlantia onto a tiny stamp and still maintain the overall look of the examples I had seen from period pieces. Thus, I decided to use a few key words from the official Oath of White Scarf, or Provost's Oath (serve, honor), as well as a few words I thought were appropriate to describe Enmar (sword, noble).

A Provost's Oath (http://www.academiedespee.com/oaths/provost/), emphasis added by me:

"Henceforth, you will hold to these conditions of our Order, which have been made known to you here, in the presence of your fellow Provosts. You shall be a loyal subject to our Sovereigns, King ____ and Queen ___, Monarchs of Atlantia, and to their successors. You will serve them and theirs against all nations to the best of your ability. You shall be a true Provost, teaching others to uphold our traditions, to love truth and knowledge, and to hate falsehood and ignorance, as you and other Provosts do. You shall teach only those who have proven themselves worthy of the responsibility that comes with this knowledge; as such, you shall not teach any suspect person, as a murderer, a thief, a common drunkard, or those who be common quarrelers.

When called upon to render judgment on any prize, game, or bout, you shall promptly speak the truth of what you have witnessed as it appears to you, setting aside all bias. You shall lend your strength to any Provost or Free Scholar should they be wronged, and if you know of any Provost who has fallen victim to circumstance, you shall put them into remembrance at all prizes and games as you would have others do for you.

You shall not promote any Free Scholar without the accord of two Provosts besides yourself. You shall not arrange a Free Scholar prize without first consulting the Provosts and attaining their general good will on behalf of the candidate, but after which you will make your plans known to all.

You shall always be merciful to any who are true subjects of Atlantia, and should you have the upper hand over them, you shall not kill them should you be able to preserve yourself without further bloodshed. You shall keep this Provost’s Oath in all things declared unto you in the presence of your brethren of this Academie, on your sacred honor."

My Work

Here are the four words I chose to include in the stamp, and the characters that they translate to in Japanese:

serve, service, samurai - 侍
sword, blade - 剣
noble, revered, valuable, precious, exalted - 尊
awe, respect, honor, revere - 敬

A closeup I took of two of the three "stamps" I made for the piece. The largest has the English version of the scroll text written extremely tiny within. The square stamp measures about 1.5"x1.5".

I arranged the characters two by two, and wrote them in the negative space of a "stamp" imprint I created by drawing with red ink.

Then, I wrote the English version of the scroll text extremely small inside of the stamp, so that it could be read if one looked closely, but would not distract from the piece at a distance. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the characters and the stamp I created.

侍剣

尊敬

I also included a smaller, round stamp above the square one, for Their Royal Majesties King Eckehard and Queen Jane to sign. The design within that negative space of that stamp is purely decorative, and of my own imagination.

I was extremely pleased with this, and intend to hide the English words on Japanese scrolls in a similar manner if I create another in the future.

Here is a close-up of the inked scroll.

I modified the figure of the charging samurai to look like Enmar, clothes and all, and to change the long-handled blade he was wielding to something that looked more akin to a sword.

Note the chicken flanking Enmar's charge, the Condottieri sea dragon to his lower left, and the cuttlefish to his lower right.

I also hid my makers' mark, a stylized black sunflower, somewhere in the picture. But where it is, I'll never tell.

The Finished Wall Scroll

This scroll was a true joy to make, and a show-stopper in court. I am very glad to have had the chance to make it for Enmar, who has since become my good friend. I hope it has a place on his wall for many years.

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