Demonstration

Review

So far this semester, we have learned about three shades of sumi. From dark to light, they are nōbuko, chūboku, and tanboku. We have also used a variety of brush strokes. They fall into two categories, vertical (chokuhitsu) and slanted (sokuhitsu). Last week's bamboo painting with fishtail leaves (gyobihō) used only three kinds of strokes. Using sokuhitsu and three shades of sumi, the bamboo stalk was painted. Note the three dimensional appearance of the result. Note also that a source of light was implied; coming from the right in that instance. Using  chokuhitsu, bamboo knots and stems were painted with light strokes, and the leaves were painted with uneven strokes.

Sasa Bamboo with Kaijihō Leaves

Sasa is the name of a type of bamboo that retains remnants of husks around the stalk through its entire life. The calligraphy character below is the Japanese kanji for sasa. It requires 10 strokes to paint.

This week's demonstration uses the kaijihō technique for painting bamboo leaves. There are different names for various kaijihō configurations. Here are what they look like.

Kejigata (ケ字形) = 3 leaves

Kaijigata (介字形) = 4 leaves

Kaijigata (介字形) = 7 leaves

Bunjikuzushi (分字くずし) = 5 leaves

Here is my painting for the week, a sasa bamboo with husks and leaves done with the kaijihō technique.