Originated from China and was introduced to Japan in the 6th century, shodo is the art of writing using a brush, dipped in to the ink to paint characters, short phrases and poems. It is often resembled as a kind of landscape painting, and plays a very important role in Japan, as the characters are believed to be containing a spiritual power.
It is written with two Kanji characters:
SHO means "to write, writing"
DO means "the path, the way"
Shodo is a Japanese word which is translated as “the way of artistic handwriting or beautiful writing.” In the old times, calligraphy is an essential part of life that the noble families require their children to learn them. But later on, it had spread on to the knowledge of the greater Japanese community.
Shodo isn’t just about writing using an ink and brush. It is a tradition. The style and the way of writing, beginning from its direction, composition and techniques, have deeper meanings to the shodo artists. The process of working on a specific art work requires practice, discipline and deep concentration.
In today’s time, calligraphy became a popular hobby of the Japanese, and you can find several organizations that teach shodo in Japan.
Photo by Justin Ruckman. Licensed under Creative Commons. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Login with Google