This Japanese hand fan was given to us as a gift recently :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BR ... UTF8&psc=1

I have convinced my wife that it belongs in my go study corner

It supposedly has the "Hannyashingyo" (Heart sutra) depicted on it and was wondering if someone more knowledgable would be able to comment on its accuracy ? (One can zoom over the pictures by hovering your cursor over the photos or by clicking them.)

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Tempus Vincit Omnia

As a Japanese who also speaks Chinese, I would like to comment on this topic.

Yes, you're right, printed on the fan is the Heart Sutra( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra ), with Japanese way of reading next to each Kanji (Chinese Character).

The sutra is writen on the　navy blue paper with golden ink.
This a common combination of colors when you write sutra for calligraphy exibitions in Japan.
However, putting hiragana (a set of phonetic letters of Japanese) next to Chinese characters is not common in exibitions.
This is a way for guiding beginners.
Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji )
That's why even for a native Japanese, sometimes it is difficult to know the correct way of reading.

Anyway, I hope the fan will keep being a part of the decoration of your room, and the power of sutra will make you even stronger in the game of go.

Thank you ! Much appreciated




So you mean that while I read right to left and top to bottom, the first column is in chinese and the next column is the japanese way of reading, so on and so forth ?

I tried to look up the wiki pages of the heart sutra before posting here, but had a tough time matching the symbols to the ones on the fan and gave up..but this is probably due to my unfamiliarity of the script(s).

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Tempus Vincit Omnia

Not quite. You should notice that each column consists of two sets of characters: the large, main characters (mostly angular in style) and some smaller characters just to the right (mostly curlier). Look at the first character: it splits into two parts, the Chinese character 佛 and its Japanese pronunciation ぶつ (the ぶ is on top of the つ). Chinese characters are used, with small modifications, in Japanese (and called "kanji" there), but their pronunciation is difficult, so Japanese also has a native phonetic script. The text on your fan is written in Chinese, but with Japanese pronunciation marks alongside.

Here is a very clearly written copy of the same text, though sadly a little faded. Notice that the main body of text on this link starts at the 5th character on your fan, with the character 般（はん）. A less faded character to compare is 空, the character at the top of the 4th line (top of the 5th on your fan).

Thanks billywoods, for the explanation.

I am happy to see the calligraphy of my favorite master is linked.

(To those who don't know)
The black and white calligraphy is said to be writen by Ouyang Xun,(欧陽詢）　a very famous Tang（唐） dynasty master.
(Actually, Master Ouyang wrote on a white paper with black ink, then someone carved the letters to stone board, then someone else put black ink all over the stone board and put wihte paper on it. )

If someone put black ink all over the stone board and THEN put white paper on it, wouldn't the words be in mirror image?
Unless of course if the letters on the stone were carved backwards first for use with printing.
But normally aren't the stones with carved calligraphy shown with the words correctly for future generations to admire?

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Plates, seals, woodblocks, and so on are all carved backwards, afaik. Do you have a seal at hand you can examine? Modern engravers have lots of fancy optical tools for this kind of thing, but I don't know whether those were available a millennium ago.

What I had in mind is more like this video on how a Chinese stone rubbing is done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADfhgDRIhUk

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Ah ! I see it now ! Thanks

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Tempus Vincit Omnia

As for Stone rubbing, please read the following.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_rubbing

The youtube video that tchan001 linked (thanks!) shows the professor putting ink on the wet paper,(not on the stone) to copy the image.
According to wiki jp, that's the common way.

The primitive way I mentioned, which is called 直接拓（direct rubbing), is to put the ink on the stone, then rub the paper, then read the paper from behind in order to avoid mirror image.
You should be reminded that the paper is very thin.