oka, kyū A lack of consistency in the list of the titles of our blog posts sometimes annoys me, although they are a list of my own decisions. Until last night, I didn’t realize the original title of today’s character, which was “Hills and Heights,” was different from the title of yesterday’s post, “Hill.” I [...]

take, jō Minotake literally means one’s height. It often implies all you have. If someone says, “minotake de ikiru,” they intend to live with all the means which is available and without having excessive desire. Basic information about this character is here. Here is its sōsho style. >>>

nana, nana-tsu, nano, shichi One of the four-character precepts that express one’s resilience is “nana korobi ya oki.” Korobi comes from the verb korobu, which means to fail or to fall. Oki comes from the verb okiru, which means to rise. It encourages you not to give up. It literally suggests that if you fall [...]

tei, chō The bottom part of today’s character, which is written in a reisho style, is what we call upward turns in kaisho. The stroke rises leftward in reisho. Tei in a kaisho style looks like this. >>> One of the meanings of this character is politeness. Some people write very polite letters. Such politeness [...]

hito-tsu, hito, ichi, itsu In calligraphy, ichi (one) is the character you should practice first whatever the styles you write. Today’s style is reisho. Compare this with one in kaisho and one in sosho.