Shodo
By Mari Yasuda
Shodo
is Japanese art: writing kanji and kana letters with India ink and
a calligraphy brush. Shodo can be seen at museums, art galleries
and at shodo exhibitions.
Japanese
students practice shodo in elementary school and junior high school.
At first, practicing calligraphy is very difficult. But we start
to enjoy it after half a year or so. We gain experience each year
as our ability goes up. Soon, we want to write on bigger paper.
A big work like this is called "jyofuku." "Jyo"
means slender and "fuku" means something hanging, such
as a scroll. So jyofuku is calligraphy written on a hanging scroll.
The
tools of shodo are:
Calligraphy
brush
There are many kinds of brushes, but the brush is selected according
to the style of handwriting and the size of the letters.
Sumi
Ink
The ink is black and called "bokuju" in Japanese.
Ink
Stone
This is called "Suzuri" and is used to hold the ink.
Hanshi
The special white paper used to write calligraphy on.
Bunchin
A weight made from iron to hold the paper down.
Shodo
has two steps. First, prepare the shitajiki and put the hanshi on
the paper and fix it with the bunchin to keep it in place. Next,
pour sumi ink onto the ink stone, and dip the calligraphy brush
into it. Write letters on the hanshi. This is shodo!
Recently,
there are fewer opportunities to see traditional Japanese style
rooms, but in the old days, a good hanging scroll was always attached
to the tokonoma, a special area in the house to display Japanese
arts.
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