Читать книгу Through Japan with Brush & Ink - Chiura Obata - Страница 6

INTRODUCTION

Throughout my life I have found great pleasure in trying to capture the beauty of natural and man-made creations with brush and ink, and during the past 75 years I have pursued my work with satisfaction. Early in my life, while under the tutelage of Moniwa Chikusen, master of the classical Tosa school of Japanese painting, I had the opportunity to visit important historical places in Japan with the old Japanese master painters.

Over the past several years I have accompanied various excursive groups from the United States on tours of these places. It is hoped that these simple brush-and-ink paintings may convey a fraction of the natural beauty radiating from Japan.

In trying to convey my impressions of the historic and scenic sites, I have attempted to paint the atmosphere with the customs that the people practice and the words they use. The name and description of a place, in translation, may not allow the image to be clear, so I have retained much of the commonly used Japanese terms. For example, Mt. Fuji is sometimes referred to as Fuji-san; Lake Biwa, as Biwako. In some cases, the reference to a place name such as Hakone, or Katsu-ura is the same for both English and Japanese. The following may serve as a guide to some of the Japanese terms used in the text:

hama: beach, shore.	shima; -jima: island
hanto: peninsula	seto: channel, sound
jinja: shrine	taki; -daki: waterfall
kawa; -gawa: river, stream	tera; -dera; -ji: temple
ko: lake, lagoon	ura: inlet, harbor
saki; -zaki: cape, point	wan: bay
shi: city	san; -zan; yama: mountain, peak

In addition, when referring to person's names the Japanese form of surname first followed by the given name has been retained.

I am indebted to my old friend Wilder Bentley, associate professor of English, San Francisco State College, for polishing the English of my accompanying narrative commentaries, and also to Diana Wheeler, secretary of the English Department, for her assistance to him in the task of preparing the final copy.

CHIURA 0BATA