JU - Longevity

Happy Birth•Day, dear Frances, 86 years young today :)

 

Frances is my friend kelly's mother.

 

 

 

Watercolor on Arches hot pressed paper, written with bamboo brush.

 

 

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JU is the Chinese/Japanese character for longevity. Here it is written one hundred times, each in a different form. Traditionally, JU was presented to an elder on a special occasion, such as her/his seventy-seventh birthday.

 

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I wrote this piece after Zen monk Hakuin, who wrote it for one of his lay followers when Hakuin was eighty-two (from p. 157 of John Stevens' 1988 book, SACRED CALLIGRAPHY OF THE EAST published by Shambhala, Boston).

 

 

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**p.s.** the original was sent to frances in hawai'i :)

Done