A collection of random characters

This is a collection of random characters I wrote over the past few months.

 

 

Revisiting an old phrase for upcoming exhibitions

风声雨声读书声声声入耳
家事国事天下事事事关心

 

This was a phrase I came up with many many years ago. I thought it would be a good idea to use this phrase for upcoming exhibitions. However, the challenge is that there are two characters that keep repeating: 声 and 事. It is very difficult to create a good piece of calligraphy when the same character keeps appearing, but I want to take up this challenge.

 

At the same time, due to paper size, it is just not practical to do so sometimes, so I decided to change it a bit for an upcoming piece. This is the draft.

 

As you can see, I changed the phrase to

风声雨声读书声千声入耳
家事国事天下事万事关心

to avoid three consecutive 声 and 事 when written using 半切 hansetsu paper.

 

For 二六 (2x6 feet) paper, I should be keeping the phrase in its original form, but using a layout that avoid grouping the three consecutive 声 and 事 together.

 

Update 9 September 2026: This is the draft for the 二六 (2x6 feet) paper version.

 

 

 

August 2026 calligraphy "homework"

The "homework" pieces that I submitted for August 2026.

Hanshi kanji 半紙漢字: 永結無情遊

 
Single character 一字: 菲

 
Hansetsu kanji 半切漢字: 草閣共招溪上月 茶爐重和巻中詩

 
Unsubmitted pieces:

July 2026 calligraphy "homework"

My first calligraphy exhibition piece

Many years ago, when I first started learning calligraphy, my teacher asked me to write something so that she can help me submit it for an exhibition. This was the piece that got submitted.

 

眼にあてて海が透くなり桜貝 

(めにあてて うみがすくなり さくらがい)

This is a poem by 松本たかし (Matsumoto Takashi).

 

I even drew the crabs based on what I learned during art class in school.

 

I actually don't remember where this piece was submitted, because it was many many years ago. I think it was for a local exhibition in Yokosuka, but I could be wrong. 

43rd Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition (第43回産経国際書展) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

I submitted two works for the 43rd Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition (第43回産経国際書展) and received notification that one of them was selected for the exhibition. Today, I made my way to see my work on exhibition. 

There is only one venue in Tokyo for the Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition and it is at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, spanning 12 exhibition halls (4 on each floor, on B1, level 1, and level 2; basically, these are all the exhibition halls at the museum except for those used by the museum for its own exhibits). Out of the 12 exhibition halls, 10 were used for the exhibition, while the remaining 2 halls were used for the "junior" section, displaying works by school students. Out of the 10 halls, works submitted by the public (from all 47 prefectures in Japan, as well as those who submitted from overseas) took up about 4 halls; the remaining 6 halls displayed works by members of the Sankei Shokai Calligraphy Association.
 
Here are some of the pieces on exhibition. 

Here are some of the winning works by students.

 

There were also submissions from other countries, including Italy, the U.S., Malaysia, and even Singapore. The submissions from Singapore were mainly seal carvings.

 
I timed my visit to day because there was also a calligraphy demonstration, where the two calligraphers who received the top awards were asked to demonstrate how they go about creating their works.

This is my work on display in section 81 of the exhibition, similar to last year.

 
Last year, my work was selected for the first time for the 42nd Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition. This makes it the second consecutive year that my work has been selected for this exhibition, and the third consecutive year that my work has been selected for a national-level calligraphy exhibition. I hope to continue my submission cycle as outlined here.

Create tools and services to solve a problem, don't put the cart before the horse

I recently watched a video about the low rate of generative AI use in Japan, compared to the U.S. and China.

 

Japan wants AI. Many people aren’t convinced.

 

My own thoughts about the low rate of generative AI use is that, generative AI is a tool, a service. In the past, we invented tools and services to solve problems that we faced, to help us address specific issues. We didn't invent knives, then thought about what to cut with them. We needed to cut things, and so we invented knives.

 

This still holds true today. The reason why people use tools and services is because they solve specific issues that those people faced. If companies provide generative AI tools and services that addresses such needs, people will use them. Therefore, a government goal of "increase generative AI use to 80%" is pointless if you are just trying to ask people to use generative AI more. Such a goal should be about providing assistance to companies to develop tools and services that people need. When they can address a need, when they can supply something to meet a demand, there will be a market, there will be users.

 

Developing a service and hoping people will adopt it is not a transformative idea; it is taking a gamble. And for the many AI companies out there who took that gamble, I think it is only right that we leave them with the risks, instead of trying to provide public funds as assistance. After all, these companies are the ones winning big if their gambles pay off. Providing a safety net to risk-taking is not conducive to transformative ideas; rather, it breeds complacency because companies know they bear less risk, and therefore can be less meticulous.

 

Hopefully, the AI companies can come up AI services that meet actual needs, rather than just hoping that consumers will find a use for something that they invented. 

July 2026 calligraphy "homework"

The "homework" pieces that I submitted for July 2026.

Hanshi kanji 半紙漢字: 醉後各分散

 
Single character 一字: 膏

 
Hansetsu kanji 半切漢字: 敷華就實

 
Unsubmitted pieces:

June 2026 calligraphy "homework"

Update: The hansetsu piece was selected as one of the better pieces for this month's homework and published in the calligraphy society's monthly newsletter.

 

 

20th anniversary of Teck's Treehouse

I was reminded that this blog was created in July 2006, 20 years ago. So I thought it would be a good idea to do a recap of what happened to this blog over those 20 years.

 

Even before Teck's Treehouse, I already had a presence on the Internet, with my own home page hosted somewhere else. It was all done by hand, each line written in HTML using a text editor, so when blogs started becoming popular, I was very excited about how easy it was to create my own home page. I found Blogspot and created my own blog, intending for it to be a place to share my thoughts, taiji stuff, and the occasional catch report from fishing.

 

I soon realised that the taiji stuff would probably expand a lot, due to my high level of devotion to this martial art, and it would be a good idea to have a dedicated blog for it. It also prompted me to create another blog for my catch reports. Since blogs can be created for free on Blogspot, I promptly created two more blogs, and shifted the posts to them.

 

The first was My Taiji Journal for recording my taiji journey.

 

The other was Learning to Fish in Singapore (which then became Learning to Fish in Singapore and Japan after I moved to Japan). 

 

Anyway, back to Teck's Treehouse. This blog started as a place to share my thoughts, note down miscellaneous stuff, and write about things that interest me. Such interests include books that I read, movies and TV shows that I watched, songs that I like, and games that I played. I wrote about some of the old games that I played, which would today be considered kind of ancient. Having been a Linux user for a long time, I also had posts about open source software. There was also a time when I traveled more, so I shared about my travels. As a programmer, I also wrote posts about programming, mostly about the languages that I used and sometimes code.

 

After moving to Japan, I got into 3D printing, and even wrote about the 3D printer control board that I designed. I also started sharing some thoughts about machine learning and AI when deep learning started to bloom. When I came across the Violet Evergarden series, I started writing many, many posts about it, including my own fan translations of short stories and such. I also wrote a bit about my scooter (which I named Vivi), and my ventures into creating a homelab. Although I have posted my calligraphy works from the start, I became more frequent in writing about calligraphy and sharing my works in the past few years, when my teacher retired and I had to continue on this learning journey alone.

 

Looking back, this blog has kind of served its original purpose, and I intend to continue writing it, adding to what I have already blogged about, and maybe expanding it with more stuff if I find other things that interest me in the future.

 

Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you will come back again.

🙇

 

Seventh anniversary of Kyoto Animation attack

It has been seven years since the arson attack on Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) 1st Studio, which resulted in 36 fatalities and 32 injured.

A monument in memory of the victims was unveiled in 2024 at the Historical Park of Tea and Uji Town (お茶と宇治のまち歴史公園) in Uji City (Kyoto Prefecture) where Kyoto Animation is based. In view of this, like last year, there will not be any online streaming of a video in memory of the victims this year.

Photo source: 京アニ事件、伝える碑設置　宇治市の公園に―京都

Fans can visit the monument at the park anytime, but are asked not to leave any flowers or other such tokens. For fans of Hibike! Euphonium, the park is actually near Kumiko's bench. It is further up the river, on the opposite bank.

Around 10:30 a.m. today, a memorial service was held at the site of the former 1st Studio. This year, around 140 persons attended the event, including employees and affiliates of Kyoto Animation as well as families of the victims. Kyoto Animation's CEO Hatta Shinichiro said that the company will not only pass on what happened in the incident, but also treasure and carry forward the works, thoughts and commitment to creation left behind by those who lost their lives.

 

List of 36 victims who appeared in credit roll of Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Translation of video for second anniversary

Translation of video for third anniverary

Translation of video for fourth anniversary

English news

KyoAni Arson Victims Remembered 7 Years On; Anime Studio Vows to Carry on Lost Colleagues’ Legacy

 

Watching Dear You (给阿嬷的情书)

I kept hearing about the movie Dear You (给阿嬷的情书), sparking my interest so much that I searched for a way to watch it in Japan. And I struck gold. It so happens that this movie is screening in Japan, although in only some cinemas. In fact, only four cinemas in Tokyo, and a single cinema in the whole of Kanagawa Prefecture. But that single cinema is in Yokohama, and so I found some time today to watch it.

 

 

Opening in Japan on 26 June 2026, it is already into its third week, but still managed to draw a handful of people.

I just want to say that I am so glad I took time to watch this movie. The story is about a Teochew man who left his family in southern China, making a living in Malaysia and Thailand (where the movie took place largely). With my grandparents being Teochew and themselves migrants who left China to seek a better life in Singapore, this movie, with its amalgram of Teochew migrant stories, struck a deep chord in my heart. By the second half of the movie, I will crying. And I was not alone. I heard a lot of sobbing around me, with a majority of the audience being ethic Chinese.

 

The entire movie was mostly in Teochew, with a bit of Mandarin and some Thai. And while I grew up speaking Teochew to my grandparents, my Teochew has gotten rusty; plus the version of Teochew used by the movie was not the version spoken by my grandparents. However, Teochew is a very poetic language, and the remittance letters a reminder of an older time, when people used so few words to capture so many emotions. The Chinese (Mandarin) and English subtitles helped a lot.

 

While the story is about a Teochew migrant, it is not just about a Teochew migrant. This is a story that will resonate with all migrants, everyone who had to leave home to live elsewhere. Truly a love letter to all Chinese migrants

 

Trivia: I finally found out the characters for "daughter" in Teochew are 走仔, basically, the characters for leave 走 and child 仔, the "child who leaves" because, traditionally, daughters leave their parents to stay with their husbands after marriage.

 

77th Mainichi Shodo Exhibition (第77回毎日書道展) at The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT)

The 77th Mainichi Shodo Exhibition (第77回毎日書道展) spans two venues: The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) in Roppongi, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno. On display at NACT are the works by members of the Mainichi Shodo Association (including the organising committee of the Mainichi Shodo Exhibition) as well as winning works from the selected public submissions. The selected public submissions that did not win any prize or award are displayed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Like last year, I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum first. I am not sure if I will be going to Ueno this year, due to other things on my schedule.

 

Upon entering NACT, there were posters introducing the exhibition, plus related events. There are live calligraphy demonstrations by winners, and sessions that explain the winning works. Like last year, I timed my visit this year to coincidence with one of the live calligraphy demonstrations.

 

The exhibition itself spans three floors, with works by the organizing committee and grand prix winners on the first floor, works by members of the Mainichi Shodo Association and the top public submissions on the second floor, and other award winners (excellence award and merit award) and association associates on the third floor (roughly).

My key purpose for going today was to see the live calligraphy demonstration, where three grand prix winners showed how they actually went about writing their works. Two of them demonstrated how they write their kanji pieces, while a third talked and demonstrated carving.

I then took my time to wander around the exhibition halls.

And as usual, I took a photo of this place that was featured in the anime movie Your Name. by Shinkai Makoto.

 

 

June 2026 calligraphy "homework"

The "homework" pieces that I submitted for June 2026.

Hanshi kanji 半紙漢字: 却似送人來

 

Single character 一字: 禁

 

Hansetsu kanji 半切漢字: 緑楊樹頭山近 碧草門前徑斜

 

Unsubmitted pieces:

 

May 2026 calligraphy "homework"