This weekend I had an opportunity to try out Japanese calligraphy at an event put on by the Fukuoka International Student Support Centre (FiSSC). Calligraphy isn’t something I’d normally be very excited about, but I’m a sucker for trying anything new so I thought I’d give it a bash anyway. It also helped that my friend Sora was coming with me, who always ready to help me avoid doing anything (too) embarrassing.
Japanese calligraphy (shodou/書道) is an art form for writing Japanese Kanji (Chinese characters) using a brush and ink that is taught to all Japanese students in primary school, but it is rarely used after that. As such the event had a good mix of Japanese and non-Japanese people attending, with quite the range of skills on display, from very basic through to really artful. The sensei (teacher) for the lesson was truly an artist and was able to create evocative works with little apparent effort. Practice definitely makes perfect.
We were given our instructions, ink, brush and a stack of paper to practise with, after which we were told to get on with practising! My own works were somewhat less than perfect, but I learnt a trick or two over the period and I really felt that I’d improved at least a little bit over the duration of the class.
I’m glad I did manage to improve a little as I was “asked” to try out writing a kanji out on one of the larger sheets (the joys of being very-obviously-foreign). I choose the character for “joy” or “喜” as it is simple and represents something I think we could all do with a little more of in our lives. The end result was middle of the road enough to neither attract laughter nor praise. Phew, embarrassment avoided!
My own experiments aside, the work produced by masters of the art truly is something else though. I’m impressed that so much feeling and emotion can be conveyed through a simple black and white medium.
All said, I had a lot of fun and learnt the basics of a new skill. Not a bad result for a Saturday afternoon!
