The Heian period, from the 8th century to the 12th century, between Nara and Kamakura period, named after the capital city Heian-kyō, which is now known as Kyoto. Heian 平安, literally "tranquillity and peace", was eventually a relatively peaceful and stable period, and that made possible the birth of Wayō and the prosperity of Japanese literature.
Let me introduce my viewpoint on the period this time.
Wayō(Japanese style beauty) / Karayō(Chinese style beauty)
Everything is connected, more or less. However, if there are particular examples of the influence on Japanese culture, that would be China and the U.S. China is the father, the U.S. is the stepfather. Mother? It's the earth--God bless Mother Nature, she's a single woman too--of course. In the 8th century, Japan entered an era of the prosperity of its own art, there was a movement away from Karayō then. Wayō 和様 is a contrast to Karayō 唐様. These terms are normally used in the field of calligraphy but occasionally also in general art. The environment develops human mind, and it's a great inspiration. China gave us great gifts, but our natural environments are very different from each other.
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| Upper: Chinese / Lower: Japanese |
So when our ancestors looked closely at their environment, when they tried to portray what they really felt in everyday life, Wayō had begun as a matter of course, although it progressed gradually and they were wavering between two styles, philosophies. For instance, they say that Sukemasa Fujiwara(944-998) the Saseki 佐跡 described their contradictory feelings at that time as follows, "漢詩だけでは、また和歌だけでは、何かさびしくものたりない、こうして漢詩における自己充足感の減退と、和歌における未成熟の意識と、こういう方向のすきま、空虚を満たすものとして、和漢をならべたてるという傾向が生まれてくる"
Kanamoji / Brush Calligraphy
When Japanese people were still having communications only orally in ancient times, Chinese character was introduced into Japan. In the Nara period, in the 8th century, people started to describe oral Japanese language by Chinese character. In the early Heian period, in the early 9th century, those Chinese characters were redesigned and simplified by men. And by the end of the 9th century, the movement toward Japanese style progressed, those Chinese characters were again redesigned and developed into Kanamoji by women.
These cultural activities were held mostly among the Heian nobles. Kana かな is said to have been created by Heian noblewomen. In this medieval Japan, not few women were given the opportunity to be educated and absorbed into literature, not because of political correctness, it was because of political ambitions. At the time, if people want to lead a life of luxury, if someone wants to be successful, they needed to form a strong connection with powerful men, and the top of the hierarchy was Mikado, the Emperor. The Heian noblemen educated and trained their daughters in order to let them attract and snare someone powerful, perhaps to let them be favoured by the Emperor. When Men and women communicate distantly, they wrote letters of Waka 和歌, Japanese poetry, which was described in the Japanese own character--Kanamoji. Power, Sex, Love--whatever the reason, they devoted themselves to poetry, composed and calligraphed a lot of poems of love, full of elegant words, by keen senses and deep insight. That's how Japanese own character was born and developed. That's why Japanese poetry flourished in the Heian period. The anthologies of this period are still loved by modern Japanese people.
The Heian noblewomen created Kanamoji, however, it was perfected by men. There are three men who are considered as the most important calligraphers in the history of Japanese calligraphy--Sanseki 三跡, meaning "Three Traces (of brush)";
Michikaze Ono 小野道風(894-966)
Sukemasa Fujiwara 藤原佐理(944-998)
Yukinari Fujiwara 藤原行成(972-1027)
And it is said that there were a lot of Nōsho 能書(excellent calligrapher) then, the time of Sanseki was a golden age of Japanese calligraphy.
My Viewpoint
I have never been interested in brush calligraphy, poetry, and the Classical Japanese before. Brush is soft and unstable, brush calligraphy requires a lot of training and patience. I'm not just a poetic type, clearly. "The Classical Japanese? A dead language? Then why don't you keep it that way? Why do we need to practice something not practical" When I was a teenager, I never cared about Heian things. But everything changed, I fell in love with Wayō, with the Heian people.
Last year, I stood alone against a terrible foe. At the begging, my Fudepen rent, wielding nothing but a weasel brush as a weapon--so they started to call me Tazfummy Weaselbrush. It was a long and steep way, but I never forgot about beauty and creativity. I kept thinking what is the most beautiful ink stains on paper, then it occurred to me that what is really beautiful. Nature, brush traces, Wayō, art--suddenly everything got connected and I realised that this is the beauty, this is the beauty that I should pursue, Kanamoji/Wayō is the essence of Japanese beauty. If I were Christian Bale, I would have dropped the snow globe on the floor at that moment.
"If they pray for courage, does God give them courage? Or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If some one prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?" -G from 'Evan Almighty'
I can hardly say it was a beautiful experience, but it was indeed an opportunity.
There is a certain person who strengthens the connection between me and Heian. Actually I found myself in the history of Heian. The person is one of the three, Yukinari Fujiwara 藤原行成 the Gonseki 権跡. He is me. I think he and I are so much alike in personal qualities. I noticed the fact, when I saw the poem he wrote.
Yukinari wrote the poem to Sei Shōnagon 清少納言. It is said that they were both not good at writing poems, both not a romantic type, but I think Sei Shōnagon was also a gender type, she cares for high/low, Yukinari is an individual type, and I can see him stressed about her too-much gender thing, and I feel the same way about her. I like and respect High/low type women but we are not compatible each other as romantic partners. We are disasters to each other as lovers. If they've got skilled, like Yū of 'The Last Ronin 最後の忠臣蔵', their choice of words would be acceptable, but basically their vulgar attitude doesn't make me feel sexy. I wouldn't say type compatibility rules everything. We would manage if there is something between us. And I know one powerful way to solve this sort of problems. But I'm just a cat. I don't know what men and women are doing exactly, night after night.
Anyway, the point is, I just cannot consider Yukinari as a total stranger, and the people of over a millennium ago were not so different from us. And if things are basically the same, I prefer beautiful ones. Heian people's words are so beautiful.
Heian of the Present Day / My Goals
Beauty, Creativity, and Fun, that's what I care about. Beautiful words and ink stains on paper are my motivation for Heian. But I live in modern times. So there are problems. There are the differences of the language between now and then. A lot of modern Japanese people cannot read the Classical Japanese Language because of grammar, vocabulary, calligraphy. The classical grammar easily makes compositions poetic, the classical vocabulary has beautiful words. There used to be multiple characters for a sound, and the choice of characters depended on calligraphers, that was Kana calligraphy かな書道 in old times. If beauty comes first, there's no practicality, people cannot read it today. Beauty or practicality, I suppose that is the dilemma that all the modern Kana calligraphers and poets have. I want to devise solutions of these problems in my own way.
I'm still a beginner in Kana calligraphy, Waka, Heian. My brush calligraphy history is; basic brush training for nine months, Heian(especially Yukinari) training for five months. I wish I could say someday, "The truth is, I am Heian Ma..." er...Master? I wish I could be a Heian master so that I keep on practising brush calligraphy. Rinsho 臨書 is one of the basic and effective training, literally "to face calligraphy (that others have scripted)", to try to copy the brush traces of other calligraphers exactly. It sounds exhausting and boring. But It's fun, to me now.
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| My sticks |
Rinsho lets me understand how the calligrapher moved his/her own hand exactly at that time. To face the brush traces of old times is, in other words, to be connected to the people of old times deeply. So, frankly, I am thrusting my soaked stick into the medieval people, and twisting it inside of them, gaining true appreciations of them, making deep connections with them. Does it still sound boring? Or now it sounds sexy? Or spiritual?
I'm not just a poetic type, but now I'm the most poetic myself ever. So I will also keep learning Japanese poetry and finding motifs. My goal is to compose a poem that can impress even Murasaki.
Japanese own art was born and prospered in the Heian period, that is also known as the time of Mochi. Some say that Wayō is the core of Japanese art, aesthetics.
I presume that most of my readers are fond of films. So I'd like to introduce a couple of the films about Heian in the following posts.
Wayō 和様 is terribly distant from Fūryū 風流? Oh, well, yes, that's very sensible of you. But I couldn't hit on a better title.
The wind shines timelessly upon us.
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