I was asked to demonstrate Japanese calligraphy live on campus at UC Davis for Contiki, a worldwide leading traveling agency in tours for 18-35s. This one-day event offers students to experience elements of various cultures from the world. I set up a booth representing Japanese culture, where students can make a request for me to write a Kanji character on a small card. I selected 30 Kanji characters for students to choose from, including popular ones such as “love”, “beauty,” “dream” and lots of other my favorites. In the afternoon, there was a long line at my table waiting to see calligraphy card written! It was great to see students’ faces holding the word sheet, trying to decide one character – and I really enjoyed speaking with every one of them. On such a sunny day under the bright direct sunlight, I wrote about 130 cards in about 4 hours. Thank you all for coming by and sharing moments with me!
What I found interesting from this all-day event at UC Davis was that the most popular Kanji character was “志 (ambition).” I thought that this character probably resonated with young college students because of their age – paving their own path for their dreams and careers, with big ambition in their heart. The second popular character was “悠 (free from worldly care)” (as it is in 悠々自適: yu-yu-ji-teki, free from worldly care / in comfort). A couple students told me that they study so hard everyday for presentations and exams and they want to be free from everything that they are dealing with. Other popular characters were “愛 (love),” “美 (beauty),” “求 (seeking),” and “信 (believe).” I love how college students’ choices of word characterize their age and a certain stage in our lives. This discovery has become a new theme that I look forward to observe in my future events 🙂
Once again – thank you for all who I met at UC Davis, and I look forward to see you again!
先日、UC Davisにて開催された、Contikiという学生・若者対象の旅行会社主催の世界の様々な文化を体感できるイベントにて、日本文化を代表してライブ書道をというご依頼をいただきました。
今回は午前10時から午後３時までの1日限りのイベントということで、UC Davisの学生さん達のリクエストに合わせて、小さなカードに一文字揮毫というスタイルでの書道ブースを用意しました。沢山の学生さん達が行列を作って並んでくれ、私のセレクトした漢字リストを手に、みんなどれにしようかと長々と悩む様子が微笑ましく、会話も弾んで楽しい時間を過ごしました。からりと晴れて直射日光の眩しい大学構内の中央広場にて、４時間で一人一人と接しながら130枚程を揮毫。帰りにはもちろんへとへとでしたが、、みんなどうもありがとう！
そんな1日から、興味深い発見が。
今回学生さんたちに一番人気だったのは、「志」という漢字。
それぞれの将来に向けて勉学に励む若い大学生のみなさんに、「志」（ambition）という文字が一番響いたようです。二番目に人気だったのは、「悠」という漢字。「悠々自適」の意味から、”free from worldly care” と訳したのですが、この二つの漢字の間で悩む子も多く、期末試験に進路にと、悩めるお年頃は解放と自由を求めているんだよーと笑いながら教えてくれました。そのほかには、「愛」「美」「求」「信」なども多くありました。年齢層によって、それぞれの心に響く言葉が異なるというのは面白いですね。今後も様々な年齢層と接していく上で、観察していきたいなと思うテーマになりました 🙂
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