Japanese calligraphy, called shodo in Japanese, is the calligraphy brushed in Japanese. As many different artistic manifestations in Japan, Japanese calligraphy has its beginnings in Chinese calligraphy. For many centuries one of the most respected calligraphers in Japan was Chinese born Wang Xizhi that lived in the 4th century.
Nevertheless, since the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries were attached to the Japanese writing practice, Japanese calligraphers started to develop their own Japanese ways of calligraphy.
Types of Japanese Calligraphy
The traditional styles are almost the same in Chinese calligraphy as in Japanese calligraphy. They are the following:
1. Seal Script, tensho in Japanese, an time-honored style of calligraphy
2. Regular Script, kaisho in Japanese language, sometimes named Standard Script in English
3. Clerical Script, reisho in Japanese language
4. Semi-Cursive, gyosho in Japanese language
5. Cursive, sosho in Japanese language, sometimes named Running Script in English
The Four Treasures
The four essential tools you need for traditional Japanese calligraphy are the Four Treasures and they are: brush, ink stick, rice paper – also called mulberry paper in the West- and the inkstone to liquefy the ink.
Chinese Calligraphy Roots and Start in Japan
Chinese calligraphy goes back three thousand years, when pictorial representations or pictographs were engraved on bones usually with religious motivations. Later on, during the Qin dynasty, the writing was systematized as it had became a crucial instrument for the administration of the Chinese state.
The Chinese way of calligraphy was brought to Japan around AD 600. Since then, in Japan calligraphy has been practiced continuously. It has developed its own style especially in the Zen tradition.
Nowadays in Japan pupils train in the art of Japanese calligraphy and it can be studied in high school or universities along with other art disciplines such as painting or music.
Finally, the emergence of performance calligraphy has made it a fashionable interest practiced together in clubs by young people. Performance calligraphy has also been introduced to the Western world and it seems to captivate many people.
Japanese Calligraphy and Zen
Zen Buddhism has had a notable influence in Japanese calligraphy. The most widespread symbol of the Zen style of Japanese calligraphy is the enso circle. The calligrapher brushes the enso circle of enlightenment in one single free-flowing stroke that is never adjusted or corrected.
Japanese Zen calligraphy, the Way of the Brush, is a form of meditation in action.