{"id":2859,"date":"2026-06-28T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2026-07-15T23:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:55:22","slug":"2859-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/2859-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Building characters in Kyoto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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Text by Natalie Avellan<\/a><\/strong>
\nPhoto by \u00c1ngeles Maku<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sensei hands me a brush. <\/span>
\n<\/span>She says, \u201cStart top to bottom, left then right.\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cTilt your brush, don\u2019t rush.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cRelax, go slow.\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>With sweeping, weeping motions <\/span>
\n<\/span>Stress ignites uniform lines yet unsure strokes.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I try and try again. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Drawing the character for town \u753a becomes a chore<\/span>
\n<\/span>And for book \u672c, I become a fraud.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Deciphering the characters I come across <\/span>
\n<\/span>In my travels, I am a mime.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Flipping to a fresh sheet, I start over with heavy pools of black ink. <\/span>
\n<\/span>I am now a child learning to write. <\/span>
\n<\/span>I copy and repeat.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I impersonate others\u2019 strokes of genius and mirages of light. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>On second instruction, I start again, timid and new. <\/span>
\n<\/span>My <\/span>oofude <\/span><\/i>brush, however, never reaches a fugue state. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Stained hands, fingers, and nails.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I smile and nod.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Laying it on thick doesn\u2019t work this time. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The <\/span>bunchin<\/span><\/i> weighs the paper down and the ground falls from under me. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I have to let go\u2026of the follow through.<\/span>
\n<\/span>The sweep of nonchalance<\/span>
\n<\/span>Of constraint, of the perfect rhythm and timing.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Like being autistic in Kyoto. <\/span><\/p>\n

And of pigeons and walks down cramped alleyways. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Of how mopeds and bikes sweep right by. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Feeling the ground <\/span>
\n<\/span>For raised store step-ups<\/span>
\n<\/span>And the thousands of steps to get somewhere.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>As I held my breath with each stroke, my camera became a living thing.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Capturing museum artifacts, sacred spaces, and posed positions. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Candid too.<\/span>
\n<\/span>In June Kyoto <\/span>
\n<\/span>Weather hot and humid. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Cloudy and humid. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Rainy and humid. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Thin lines. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Straight lines. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Thick lines. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Bad form or good. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Urban streetwear or modest and formal. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The hunt for Sailor Moon ends with Kyoto\u2019s vintage collectibles at Mandarake, some 45,000 yen. And just outside, Osaka: a boon for Tokyo merch fans. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>And quietly misinterpreting friendships..classmates..acquaintances..strangers. <\/span>
\n<\/span>With eyes on me. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Practicing the smooth, flowy accents. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Of my brush. <\/span>
\n<\/span>Of my tongue. <\/span>
\n<\/span>That only comes in quick flashes like a rare slight chill. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>In June, Kyoto weather. Everyone walking with perfect purpose. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Observing this difficult practice called life, <\/span>
\n<\/span>I sign my name horizontally, <\/span>
\n<\/span>Bottom left<\/span>
\n<\/span>with less fear than before.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lesson in kanji<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-postcards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/NATALIE-PostCard-001-WEB.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2026kyoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}