Shodo (Japanese calligraphy)101
As a representative of Japanese writing, Shodo depicts the culture and history of it. Shodo is widely practiced in Japan. It is taught in schools, as well as there is a 道(way) of the art. While the Japanese writing is historically from China, the invention of hiragana and katakana came into the realm of shodo.
Shodo is originally from China, and has many of the same writing styles. The history of shodo begins in China. This Chinese root of Japanese calligraphy goes back to the 13th century. This points to a time when calligraphy was encrypted in bones for religious purposes. This writing system soon became a way of conducting administrations for the state, they needed a uniform script for this. At this point the prime minister of China made a form of writing that would unite all of the types of scripts. Here, the primary form of Chinese characters was made. It had certain rules such as composition was horizontal, and formed the script as a uniform square shape and eight strokes, which came to take shape as the characters we know today.
In the beginning since the words were written on bones the characters seemed very angular. Li Si, the then prime minister introduced an brush and ink style where the letters would be written in a different style. Since then, the art of calligraphy developed with an emphasis on esthetics and balance of the characters.
Thus, calligraphy was introduced to Japan in AD 600. Since then, and until now the style Carayo has been practice with a continual contact, and rejuvenation from the Chinese culture. The oldest existing calligraphic text in Japan is on a halo of the Medicine Buddha in the Horyu-ji temple. This text was written in the Shakyotai style prominent in the Chinese six dynasty period.
The basic four tools for calligraphy are called the Four Treasure of the Study. These include:
~a brush
~an ink stick
~mulberry paper
~an ink stone
Other tools include:
~a paper weight
~a cloth
~a seal
As a representative of Japanese writing, Shodo depicts the culture and history of it. Shodo is widely practiced in Japan. It is taught in schools, as well as there is a 道(way) of the art. While the Japanese writing is historically from China, the invention of hiragana and katakana came into the realm of shodo.
Shodo is originally from China, and has many of the same writing styles. The history of shodo begins in China. This Chinese root of Japanese calligraphy goes back to the 13th century. This points to a time when calligraphy was encrypted in bones for religious purposes. This writing system soon became a way of conducting administrations for the state, they needed a uniform script for this. At this point the prime minister of China made a form of writing that would unite all of the types of scripts. Here, the primary form of Chinese characters was made. It had certain rules such as composition was horizontal, and formed the script as a uniform square shape and eight strokes, which came to take shape as the characters we know today.
In the beginning since the words were written on bones the characters seemed very angular. Li Si, the then prime minister introduced an brush and ink style where the letters would be written in a different style. Since then, the art of calligraphy developed with an emphasis on esthetics and balance of the characters.
Thus, calligraphy was introduced to Japan in AD 600. Since then, and until now the style Carayo has been practice with a continual contact, and rejuvenation from the Chinese culture. The oldest existing calligraphic text in Japan is on a halo of the Medicine Buddha in the Horyu-ji temple. This text was written in the Shakyotai style prominent in the Chinese six dynasty period.
The basic four tools for calligraphy are called the Four Treasure of the Study. These include:
~a brush
~an ink stick
~mulberry paper
~an ink stone
Other tools include:
~a paper weight
~a cloth
~a seal