Spring

by Nao

haru, shun

From today, we are going to show you four seasons. Let’s begin with haru, that is, spring.

The spring on the lunar calendar is roughly from January to March. Although most Japanese people are not familiar with the lunar calendar any more, they know hatsuharu means the New Year. The hatsu means a new beginning.

On the lunar calendar, there are 24 terms within a year. According to this system, spring expands the first six terms. The first term is risshun that begins around New Year’s Day on the lunar calendar. The ritsu (ris-) of risshun means to stand. Risshun begins around the 4th of February on the solar calendar. This character shun is used for another term, shunbun or the vernal equinox. The bun is to divide or split. This and this are links to wikipedia pages for these terms, but both headwords are Chinese pinyin.

First, draw three horizontal lines.

1. Draw the top horizontal line from left to the right.
2. Draw the second horizontal line.
3. Draw the third horizontal line.
4. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top. Let it head to the lower left. By putting the tip of the brush along the left side of the stroke, you can make it look like a sharp edge. Make it narrower at the end.
5. Draw the stroke from middle of the previous stroke. You can make the hem-like ending by spreading the brush.
6. The following strokes are a smaller version of nichi (day) Draw the vertical line on the left.
7. Draw the right-angled hook. Start this stroke from where you start the previous stroke. Make a nice shoulder while changing the direction of the brush.
8. Draw the horizontal stroke inside.
9. Draw the horizontal stroke at the bottom.