P7+Samurai+Arts

=P7 Samurai Arts= Reaghan S Margaret C World Cultures 7th Period 2/17/11

Samurai arts are very sacred to the Japanese culture. The art includes landscape paintings, hanging scrolls, meditation, and meditation gardens.

Landscape paintings are done in many different ways such as hanging scrolls. Hanging scrolls don’t have many paintings on it except for the middle which has a piece of paper or silk which has an image that can be a painting, calligraphy, or a combination of both. People paint on screens, doors, and walls. Painting on walls, screens, and doors has a variety of styles. Ink painting was imported to Japan in the 13th and 14th centuries. It is very important to Zen Buddhism.

Zen meditation focuses on meditation gardens. Meditation gardens are made to be more beautiful than nature. There are several types of Zen gardens called karesansui meaning dry-mountain-and-water gardens. The ripples in the sand are meant to signify the ripples in water, but because it is still you can focus on meditating. There are thirteen stones in the gardens and people say if you meditate long enough you can see the fourteenth one in your mind.

Everything in the dry landscape garden was constructed and placed according to traditional Japanese customs and practices. There are several types of Zen gardens. The most important is called karesansui, which truly means dry-mountain-and-water-gardens. Gravel and rocks have been used.

Basho is a poet who is known for his 17 syllable compositions called haikus. Following Basho, other poets continued to write fine poetry in the hokku style and to create their own distinctive poetic voices, and Basho's poems had spirituality. One of Basho’s most notable successors was Yosa Buson, who was a poet and a painter, and his verses were particularly descriptive of worldly scenes without any overt suggestion of the spirituality found in Basho’s poems. That is why haiku is about nature.

Ikebana is a special form if meditation when flowers are arranged correctly. In ikebana, the distinction between moribana and nageire can be generally seen in the kinds of containers used. Basins are used for moribana and vases for nageire, but the methods of arrangement are also different. It is a special and sacred art to know ikebana.

Haiku is an art form involving formal poetry, nature painting, mediation gardens and silk screen calligraphy. The short, 17-syllable form is usually written in three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable count, and focuses our attention on a single, insightful moment. Haiku is closely tied to the Japanese aesthetic of Yugen and the spirituality of Buddhism. A well-executed haiku is rooted in the physical world of our senses.

The Ghost of the Tokaido Inn relates to the Samurai arts because Siekei wished to be a Samurai. When he was traveling with the judge, Siekei received his own wooden sword, which was part of Samurai training. Siekei told the judge everything he knew about samurai, confessing that he read samurai books. Throughout the trip with the judge, Siekei experiences many things, and sometimes he has to defend himself. Even though Siekei had read many samurai books, and learned much about the samurai, there were many things he needed to learn. Siekei wished to be a samurai, but he knew his dream could never come true because he was merchant’s son, and because of the social classes, merchants were not allowed to become anything other than merchants.

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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> Zen Garden. [|http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-59482552/stock-photo-beautiful-peaceful- japanese-zen-garden-used-for-meditation-and-relaxation-filled-with-green.__html__] __. 2/21/11.Image __ <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> __<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> Landscape Painting. [|http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-54182047/stock-photo-chinese- landscape-painting.html]. 2/21/11.Image __