Information
| Title: |
亀毛兎角 JP: Kimō tokaku “Turtle hair and rabbit horns” |
| Media: | Ink on paper (shikishi board) |
| Size: |
20 cm by 20 cm (framed/mounted size: 28.5 cm by 30.5 cm) |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
- Style: Northern Wei dynasty regular script (a form of kaisho).
- Ink hand-rubbed using egg white (albumen) rather than water. The result is a silver colour and minimal bleeding.
A cute idiomatic expression meaning “things that should not be.”
I believe that this is also the origin of the common Japanese word とにかく (tonikaku, “anyway”). Many idioms in Japanese were taken from Chinese poems. I’d love to know whether this particular phrase came from a Chinese poem and what such a poem might have been about. I will investigate further…