Remembering Kobara Ranseki Sensei
By
Hiseki Davey
(This article first appeared in the 2006 New Year’s edition of the Sennin Foundation Newsletter.)
By
Hiseki Davey
(This article first appeared in the 2006 New Year’s edition of the Sennin Foundation Newsletter.)
On December 28, 2005 the world lost one of Japan’s preeminent practitioners of traditional Japanese art when Kobara Ranseki Sensei passed away in San Francisco. Kobara Sensei, acknowledged in Asia and the USA as perhaps the greatest shodo artist outside of Japan, was 81 years old.
The Birth of an Artist
He was born Kobara Seiji on December 24, 1924 in Shimane Prefecture, Mino County, Japan. Coming from a long line of Buddhist priests, his father was the priest of Myorenji Temple. Like his forefathers, Kobara Seiji also trained to become a reverend. While he was devoted to Buddhism, as a young man he found a second passion—shodo, the art of Japanese brush calligraphy. Shodo is one of the most ancient Japanese art forms. More than writing with a brush, it overlaps into ink painting and has elements in common with Western abstract art. Today scores of people practice shodo as meditation and artistic expression, rather than merely studying it as a system of writing.
The Birth of an Artist
He was born Kobara Seiji on December 24, 1924 in Shimane Prefecture, Mino County, Japan. Coming from a long line of Buddhist priests, his father was the priest of Myorenji Temple. Like his forefathers, Kobara Seiji also trained to become a reverend. While he was devoted to Buddhism, as a young man he found a second passion—shodo, the art of Japanese brush calligraphy. Shodo is one of the most ancient Japanese art forms. More than writing with a brush, it overlaps into ink painting and has elements in common with Western abstract art. Today scores of people practice shodo as meditation and artistic expression, rather than merely studying it as a system of writing.
Kobara Seiji became a student of the famed calligraphic artist Fukuzawa Seiran Sensei, who taught an old and venerable style of calligraphy at Kyoto University. Fukuzawa Sensei emphasized the study of the Shin So Sen-Ji-Mon, a very old 1000-character classic brushed by the Chinese monk/calligrapher Chiei.
After World War II times were hard all over Japan, with people having little time or money for artistic pursuits. As the result, Kobara Seiji was Fukuzawa Sensei’s only private student, and he visited his home for exclusive one-on-one training each day. Eventually, Fukuzawa Sensei gave his sole student the name Ranseki, which means an “Indigo Blue Stone,” and which included the “ran” character from his own pen name. (The bestowing of gago, special names used in art, is common in a number of Japanese disciplines, and it indicates that a student has come into his or her own as an artist.) In time, Kobara Ranseki would receive a Shihan-Dai teaching certificate from Fukuzawa Sensei, the highest ranking in his school of calligraphy.
Leaving Japan
In 1947, Kobara Sensei wasn’t just studying Buddhism and shodo. He was working in the prosecutor’s office in Kyoto. Always interested in new horizons, however, Kobara Sensei decided to leave his prosperous ancestral temple and take a daring and uncertain path by moving to the USA in 1950. He enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle and studied at the Seattle Buddhist Church. After graduating, he transferred to the Buddhist Church of San Francisco in 1954.
Leaving Japan
In 1947, Kobara Sensei wasn’t just studying Buddhism and shodo. He was working in the prosecutor’s office in Kyoto. Always interested in new horizons, however, Kobara Sensei decided to leave his prosperous ancestral temple and take a daring and uncertain path by moving to the USA in 1950. He enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle and studied at the Seattle Buddhist Church. After graduating, he transferred to the Buddhist Church of San Francisco in 1954.
In 1960, Reverend Kobara once again set out on a new path in life when he retired from his church position and began a profession with Japan Airlines. As usual, he was successful at his new job, a career lasting 31 years until his retirement in 1991.
Founding Ranseki Sho Juku Style Calligraphy
During his professional life with the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, Reverend Kobara was informed that there was nobody skilled enough to paint the calligraphy of Japanese names for tombstones in a Japanese cemetery in Colma, California. Owing to his advanced experience in shodo, he was the natural choice, and he brushed characters that were engraved on over 150 stone markers. His skill was so obvious that he was soon asked to teach calligraphy in San Francisco, where he founded the Ranseki Sho Juku (“Ranseki Calligraphy School”) in 1966. (This same year he also became the Director of the San Francisco branch of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony.)
Founding Ranseki Sho Juku Style Calligraphy
During his professional life with the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, Reverend Kobara was informed that there was nobody skilled enough to paint the calligraphy of Japanese names for tombstones in a Japanese cemetery in Colma, California. Owing to his advanced experience in shodo, he was the natural choice, and he brushed characters that were engraved on over 150 stone markers. His skill was so obvious that he was soon asked to teach calligraphy in San Francisco, where he founded the Ranseki Sho Juku (“Ranseki Calligraphy School”) in 1966. (This same year he also became the Director of the San Francisco branch of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony.)
Over time, he evolved his unique version of orthodox Japanese calligraphic art, which is characterized as Ranseki Ryu shodo or Ranseki Sho Juku shodo. In 1975, he started teaching in Oakland, California at the Wanto Shodo-Kai (“East Bay Shodo Association”), and several years later, he began teaching in Palo Alto. In 1977, he became the co-founder (with Ueno Chikushu Sensei) of the Kokusai Shodo Bunka Koryu Kyokai—the “International Japanese Calligraphy and Cultural Exchange Association”—that is headquartered in Urayasu, with members throughout Japan, China, and the USA. Acting as Vice President, Kobara Sensei helped to oversee the esteemed Kokusai Shodo-ten, or “International Shodo Exhibition,” that takes place annually in Japan.
Widespread Accolades
As he began to exhibit his artwork more widely, many people noticed his exceptional skill in shodo and ink painting. During his long artistic career he received prestigious awards for excellence in Japanese art from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and even the Prime Minister of Japan. His art can been seen in many places in San Francisco’s Japan Town, as well as in the homes of art aficionados in various locales, and on a special copper plate exhibited at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco. A hanging scroll of his calligraphy is displayed at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center (also in San Francisco). It reads Yume, Ai, Kibou, which means “Dreaming of Love and Hope,” an apt description of what he wished to inspire via his artistic expressions.
For years Kobara Sensei gave the primary address at the International Shodo Exhibition. At these times, so accomplished and distinctive was his style of traditional brush writing that even expert calligraphy teachers in Japan asked to become his disciples. They were disappointed to discover that not only did he live in the United States, but that he also rarely accepted students.
Meeting my Teacher
After looking for a calligraphy teacher for several years, I met Kobara Ranseki Sensei in the 1980s. Deeply impressed, not only with his artwork but also with his peaceful and dignified demeanor, I began practicing with him. With his help, I eventually exhibited my artwork annually at the International Shodo Exhibition in Urayasu, where I’ve received a number of awards, including Jun Taisho—the “Associate Grand Prize.” In 1990, Kobara Sensei honored me with the art name Hiseki, meaning a “Flying Stone,” by combining the “seki” character from his name with the sound “hi” that’s used to write my first name phonetically in Japanese. In 1993, I received Shihan-Dai teaching certification from Kobara Sensei, the highest rank in Ranseki Sho Juku calligraphy.
Upon receiving teaching certification, I began offering my students of Shin-shin-toitsu-do instruction in shodo at the Sennin Foundation Center for Japanese Cultural Arts. Like Shin-shin-toitsu-do (Japanese yoga and meditation), budo (“martial ways”), kado (“the Way of flower arrangement”), and other classical arts, shodo is a Do, or “Way” to spiritual realization. In short, it’s more than brush writing.
Shodo has functioned in Japan as both fine art and moving meditation. As such, it’s ideal for students of Shin-shin-toitsu-do or most any type of meditation. Yet many Americans are intimated by the “foreignness” of shodo, and few grasp how it functions as dynamic meditation that can lead to deeper concentration, willpower, and calmness. To counteract this, I authored Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind & Body Harmony in 1999.
Studying with Kobara Sensei
Kobara Sensei thought of himself as an artist, and his approach to shodo emphasized practicing it more as an art form than as simple lettering. He spoke of the beauty of line, the mysterious luster of sumi ink, and the asymmetrical balance of shodo as transcendent creative elements common to numerous arts, and which people of different cultures could relate to, much as varied nationalities can appreciate abstract art. And he insisted that, “I’m not teaching shuji (handwriting), but rather shodo—the Way of calligraphy.”
Widespread Accolades
As he began to exhibit his artwork more widely, many people noticed his exceptional skill in shodo and ink painting. During his long artistic career he received prestigious awards for excellence in Japanese art from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and even the Prime Minister of Japan. His art can been seen in many places in San Francisco’s Japan Town, as well as in the homes of art aficionados in various locales, and on a special copper plate exhibited at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco. A hanging scroll of his calligraphy is displayed at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center (also in San Francisco). It reads Yume, Ai, Kibou, which means “Dreaming of Love and Hope,” an apt description of what he wished to inspire via his artistic expressions.
For years Kobara Sensei gave the primary address at the International Shodo Exhibition. At these times, so accomplished and distinctive was his style of traditional brush writing that even expert calligraphy teachers in Japan asked to become his disciples. They were disappointed to discover that not only did he live in the United States, but that he also rarely accepted students.
Meeting my Teacher
After looking for a calligraphy teacher for several years, I met Kobara Ranseki Sensei in the 1980s. Deeply impressed, not only with his artwork but also with his peaceful and dignified demeanor, I began practicing with him. With his help, I eventually exhibited my artwork annually at the International Shodo Exhibition in Urayasu, where I’ve received a number of awards, including Jun Taisho—the “Associate Grand Prize.” In 1990, Kobara Sensei honored me with the art name Hiseki, meaning a “Flying Stone,” by combining the “seki” character from his name with the sound “hi” that’s used to write my first name phonetically in Japanese. In 1993, I received Shihan-Dai teaching certification from Kobara Sensei, the highest rank in Ranseki Sho Juku calligraphy.
Upon receiving teaching certification, I began offering my students of Shin-shin-toitsu-do instruction in shodo at the Sennin Foundation Center for Japanese Cultural Arts. Like Shin-shin-toitsu-do (Japanese yoga and meditation), budo (“martial ways”), kado (“the Way of flower arrangement”), and other classical arts, shodo is a Do, or “Way” to spiritual realization. In short, it’s more than brush writing.
Shodo has functioned in Japan as both fine art and moving meditation. As such, it’s ideal for students of Shin-shin-toitsu-do or most any type of meditation. Yet many Americans are intimated by the “foreignness” of shodo, and few grasp how it functions as dynamic meditation that can lead to deeper concentration, willpower, and calmness. To counteract this, I authored Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind & Body Harmony in 1999.
Studying with Kobara Sensei
Kobara Sensei thought of himself as an artist, and his approach to shodo emphasized practicing it more as an art form than as simple lettering. He spoke of the beauty of line, the mysterious luster of sumi ink, and the asymmetrical balance of shodo as transcendent creative elements common to numerous arts, and which people of different cultures could relate to, much as varied nationalities can appreciate abstract art. And he insisted that, “I’m not teaching shuji (handwriting), but rather shodo—the Way of calligraphy.”
Owing to his profoundly spiritual nature, Kobara Sensei viewed brush writing and ink painting as a path for refining character, and he commented on how we could see the depths of our personality by observing our calligraphy. For anyone to produce skillful calligraphy they must demonstrate calmness and concentration, at least during the time the hand holds the brush. Kobara Sensei, nevertheless, preferred to teach the essential qualities of shodo—calmness, relaxation, concentration, willpower, and a positive spirit—through his actions more than through his words.
His distinctive style of calligraphy emphasizes Chinese characters and Japanese phonetic symbols that feature naturalistic, rounded, and flowing forms. Ranseki Sho Juku calligraphy is filled with uniquely graceful elements that rest in a sea of serenity. Simultaneously powerful as well as calm, Kobara Sensei’s shodo reflected his quietly resolute and dignified personality; and in all the years I spent around him—in class and in his home, at public demonstrations and in private, in Japan and in the USA—I never saw him lose his composure. Not once.
He created a well thought out series of lessons that began with the study of kana, or “Japanese phonetic symbols,” and progressed to simple Chinese characters. From there, new students learned hentaigana, an antique version of Chinese characters used for their voiced sound rather than for their meaning. Hentaigana are studied in kaisho and sosho form—script styles similar to printing and cursive writing in English.
He created a well thought out series of lessons that began with the study of kana, or “Japanese phonetic symbols,” and progressed to simple Chinese characters. From there, new students learned hentaigana, an antique version of Chinese characters used for their voiced sound rather than for their meaning. Hentaigana are studied in kaisho and sosho form—script styles similar to printing and cursive writing in English.
Next, pupils copy the 1000 different Chinese characters—in both kaisho and sosho form—found in the Shin So Sen-Ji-Mon . . . the same course of study that Kobara Sensei undertook many years ago. Simultaneously, Kobara Sensei taught us to write time-honored haiku and waka poems, and all of us learned to use large and small brushes with equal skill. We also copied Kobara Sensei’s occasional simple ink paintings that he used to illustrate the calligraphed poems that are part of the lesson plan for Ranseki Sho Juku shodo. He drew from the haiku of Basho, the 100 waka found in the Ogura Hyaku-Nin-Isshu, and other poetry collections.
Over his numerous years of teaching, not many students completed the 1000 characters of the Shin So Sen-Ji-Mon, but when I and a few others finished this book, Kobara Sensei helped us to study, copy, and learn the semi-cursive gyosho script of Ogishi, arguably the most celebrated calligraphic artist in China and Japan. However, instead of having us copy books of famous calligraphy, or from a manual of his own brush writing, Kobara Sensei personally painted a lesson for each student, one lesson at a time, one person at a time. We than left for home, where we’d repeatedly copy his artwork and absorb its essence into our subconscious. In a couple weeks, he would gently correct our best copy and give us the next lesson in his predetermined series.
Such a personal and labor intensive approach is rare in shodo, and as our teacher entered old age, we urged him to hand out photocopies of his artwork. He refused and continued to spend countless hours patiently teaching each student privately, one after another. Even in his 70s and 80s, he would sit for several hours at a time, painting continuously, until he slowly worked his way through the students that had gathered on a particular day. Kobara Sensei insisted such a fatiguing process was needed for him to continue to train his mind, body, and calligraphy. He rightly contended that it was better for his students.
Over his numerous years of teaching, not many students completed the 1000 characters of the Shin So Sen-Ji-Mon, but when I and a few others finished this book, Kobara Sensei helped us to study, copy, and learn the semi-cursive gyosho script of Ogishi, arguably the most celebrated calligraphic artist in China and Japan. However, instead of having us copy books of famous calligraphy, or from a manual of his own brush writing, Kobara Sensei personally painted a lesson for each student, one lesson at a time, one person at a time. We than left for home, where we’d repeatedly copy his artwork and absorb its essence into our subconscious. In a couple weeks, he would gently correct our best copy and give us the next lesson in his predetermined series.
Such a personal and labor intensive approach is rare in shodo, and as our teacher entered old age, we urged him to hand out photocopies of his artwork. He refused and continued to spend countless hours patiently teaching each student privately, one after another. Even in his 70s and 80s, he would sit for several hours at a time, painting continuously, until he slowly worked his way through the students that had gathered on a particular day. Kobara Sensei insisted such a fatiguing process was needed for him to continue to train his mind, body, and calligraphy. He rightly contended that it was better for his students.
Amazingly, his calligraphy improved throughout his life, and he showed no decline in old age. Several years ago, Kobara Sensei developed a condition similar to congestive heart failure, and no operation could be attempted due to his age. He lost weight and his body weakened, but his gentle and indomitable spirit did not. At times he told me that he’d been almost too weak to lift a glass of water, but that he nevertheless practiced shodo that day. “My brush doesn’t weigh as much as a water glass, so I still needed to practice,” he whispered.
A Final Tribute
On November 17, 2005, Kobara Sensei received Kyokujitsu Tanko Sho—the “Order of the Rising Sun (with Silver Rays)”—from the Japanese government for his numerous years of promoting and preserving traditional Japanese art and culture via his contributions to shodo and tea ceremony. This rarely bestowed award comes in the form of the Kunsho, a Medal of Honor, which was presented to Kobara Sensei by Yamanaka Makoto, Consul General of Japan. Surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren, he quietly thanked his spouse and his family for their support that allowed him to receive such a distinguished honor. He took no credit for his achievements, insisting that his accomplishments were due to his longevity, the love of his family, and his late teacher Fukuzawa Seiran Sensei.
Still, he was deeply touched by this decoration that few people ever receive, and he shyly showed us his award at one of the last shodo classes he would ever teach. He was clearly at peace and delighted by how his life had turned out.
A Final Tribute
On November 17, 2005, Kobara Sensei received Kyokujitsu Tanko Sho—the “Order of the Rising Sun (with Silver Rays)”—from the Japanese government for his numerous years of promoting and preserving traditional Japanese art and culture via his contributions to shodo and tea ceremony. This rarely bestowed award comes in the form of the Kunsho, a Medal of Honor, which was presented to Kobara Sensei by Yamanaka Makoto, Consul General of Japan. Surrounded by his wife, children, and grandchildren, he quietly thanked his spouse and his family for their support that allowed him to receive such a distinguished honor. He took no credit for his achievements, insisting that his accomplishments were due to his longevity, the love of his family, and his late teacher Fukuzawa Seiran Sensei.
Still, he was deeply touched by this decoration that few people ever receive, and he shyly showed us his award at one of the last shodo classes he would ever teach. He was clearly at peace and delighted by how his life had turned out.
