Tesshu’s Tiger

Tesshu’s Tiger is a reproduction of a calligraphy by the 19th century Japanese Master Yamaoka Tesshu (1836- 1888).

Tesshu was a Master of Sword, Zen, and Calligraphy.

I made this piece for a Japanese friend of mine, also talented Sword practitioner. It is made of Travertine and black Granite only and mounted in a wooden frame.

In Taoist tradition, Dragon and Tiger are another way to symbolize Yin and Yang.
This Tiger mosaic is also paired with its counterpart, Tesshu’s Dragon.

I built Tesshu’s Tiger in reverse method, upside down, mirror image. What you see here is the back of the Dragon mosaic on January 29, 2013.

I take great pleasure in realizing mosaics of Chinese calligraphies, rendering the impression of the ink on the paper is a very interesting task, you have to lay your stone tesserae as if they were droplets of watery ink. There is a lot of visualization to be done while doing this. Having myself studied Calligraphy with a Korean Master years ago is a source of inspiration for the task.