Shodo ~the art between letters and pictures~
The instrument of shodo
Shodo is a kind of practice and art. “shodo書道” is made of the word ”sho書” and “do道”. The word “sho” means writing, drawing, painting, and sometimes letters. Sometimes shodo is said as a Japanese calligraphy. Especially it is done with “Fude筆” and “sumi墨”. Fude is a special brush for shodo, Japanese calligraphy brushes. The handle is made of wood, bamboo, or plastic.
The brush is made of animal hairs, usually horses, sheep, and raccoon dogs. It may be made of chickens, Japanese weasels, mountain goats, mongooses, peafowls, or bamboo. Sumi means soot, but in shodo sumi means special ink made from burnt wood and animal glue or plant oil. The sumi made from plant oil is called “yuenboku油煙墨”. The sumi made from pine wood is called “shoenboku松煙墨”.
The spread to the citizen
Shodo is one of the most popular practices in Japan because most Japanese learn shodo in elementary schools and junior high school. Especially in summer vacation, students must write shodo calligraphy as homework. There is one shodo class every week in schools (sometimes more/less classes).
And there are a lot of shodo lesson schools in Japan. Therefore, there are almost no Japanese who have never practiced shodo even though they spend school days in Japan.
As you learn shodo at first, you should start rinsho. Rinsho is a shodo training whose method is writing calligraphy works with observing examples. Copying the examples written by teachers, the students learn how to use the brush, when to put sumi with it, how to balance letters and space. The most famous learning way is “eiji-happo永字八法”. “Ei永” is a kanji which is a Chinese character used in Japan and Korea as well. “Happo八法” means eight ways. It needs the eight basic writing techniques to write the letter “ei” in shodo. Therefore, in some schools, you may learn the letter ”ei永”.
Shodo as art works
You can see a lot of shodo works in Japan. On commercial designs such as logos, packages, logos, advertising sign, there are pretty many shodo calligraphies. Most of them are designed by professional shodo artists who have design office or won some big prizes of shodo conventions.
You may see some young shodo artists on TV show.
Shodo has a lot of styles, sometimes even Japanese cannot read what is written even though the work was written in usual Japanese. Such type of shodo is considered as a kind of pictures. It is a picture including the letter, used with light and shade.
Shodo has some failure but no succeed, so a lot of shodo artists and masters are pursuing the better way of shodo as today.
If you would like to start learning shodo, you are able to start in foreign countries. But you would like to improve your skill better. How about learning shodo in Japan?
