Calligraphy: It's not as easy as it looks

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by kunitokotachi

I don't know but I was once told that you could sit seiza until your heart becomes calm and write the most beautiful caligraphy.

It does not have to be seiza. Chinese write it at the table. The aim is to calm down, and usually it is achieved through preparing the ink. Monotony of circular movements, the scent of ink and glancing at the 手本 or simply imagining your 書if its not 臨書 allows the calligrapher to enter a pre-meditative state. He is dragged in further into a state of bliss through writing. Important is the way we sit, and use our body and mind to write, however it does not have to be seiza.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by shodo

I do not have any experience when it comes to that sort of calligraphy but I would imagine it is extremely difficult to master. The practice needed for such art would be tremendous, I think. Any experience with Japanese calligraphy?

Calligraphy is called 書道 as it is a way, endless in fact. I have been studying it now for 7 years, and I just feel like I am beginning to understand it. The knowledge is so immense that it would take few lifetimes to embrace it in some percentage. there are nearly 60.000 characters, 5 basic styles, but countless sub-styles, millions of hand writings (which is especially critical in 草書), and hundreds of schools. I won't even mention that another day can bring new approach to one character.

Calligraphy is not about discovering how to write, rather than searching your very self. One needs to reach his own core and pour it all out in a split second onto the paper.

I can spend as much as 15 hours writing in one day, and I wish i could do it every day. I envy the ancient masters for having the opportunity to live by the brush, and nothing else. When I write i forget to eat, drink and if my wife was not considerate enough to remind me I would probably collapse writing.

below is an example of one of my works,　嶺上雲　（れいじょううん） a mountain peak above the clouds, written with 2 brushes held together, one made of sheep wool and another of bird feathers to add a bit of dramatic touch by means of irregular lines to the scene of clouds being torn apart by razor like rocks. There is no 雅号印 (pen name seal) as I press it before work goes to the manufacture to be framed or mounted onto the hanging scroll (掛け軸). Size: 全紙 (600x1350mm)




Second is 無心 （むしん) which is Zen Buddhism word. It is to be understood as meditative state where we hear no sounds, we think no thoughts and we see no distortion. It's a peak state of Zen. Size: 全紙 (600x1350mm)



And small scale calligraphy of a kanji 花　（はな） - flower.

楷書 (printed style)


行書 (semi-cursive)


草書 (cursive)

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by shodo

In a way, art has almost always been a series of worldwide influences/connections. Ukiyo-e (Japanese prints) if I remember correctly, had a great influence on Van Gogh and his art.

It was rather Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Picasso once said that if he was born Chinese he would have become a calligrapher.

[dogsbody70]

How very beautiful. It is marvellous. My friend tells me that usually calligraphers kneel at a low table to do the calligraphy.
I have a couple of books but have to confess I have not really attempted to copy. I llike the look of the Buddhist Sutra.

So much seems to depend on the way the writer holds the brush. I had a few lessons from a young Chinese gentleman, He used old telephone books for us to practice.

Its good that you feel the spiritual sense whilst painting.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

How very beautiful. It is marvellous. My friend tells me that usually calligraphers kneel at a low table to do the calligraphy.
I have a couple of books but have to confess I have not really attempted to copy. I llike the look of the Buddhist Sutra.

So much seems to depend on the way the writer holds the brush. I had a few lessons from a young Chinese gentleman, He used old telephone books for us to practice. Must have been an old school person. It goes to the times (still is in fact) when paper was extremely expensive and difficult to obtain.

Its good that you feel the spiritual sense whilst painting.

Thank you. Great master, to teach you on on telephone books. This shows how abstract calligraphers think. He must have been an extraordinary man. It a reference to old school of calligraphy and respecting the paper, which back in a days was very expensive and hard to come by.

Well with kneeling it depends. In Japan mostly they study in seiza, or at the table. I cant sit in seiza due to knee injuries I got throughout years of studying martial arts. Nonetheless, whenever I write a large scale work, there is no other way but kneeling. You support yourself on one hand, suspend your upper body in the air and write with entire arm. After two or three hours it may be tiring haha.

Brush holding techniques vary, in China and in Japan. In fact, there are numerous ways of holding the brush, but the principal stay same - do not write with the brush but with your heart. Main and most basic rule is to hold is perpendicular to the paper surface. Some styles such seal style, cannot be written correctly if the brush is not held straight up. It has to do with "hiding the brush tip" technique and "rounding the lines". Holding brush vertically we ensure the line to be solid and consistent, ending of the line smooth and not abrupt.

That is why, in order to write powerful calligraphy one needs to study basics, slowly and with understanding. I reckon I need another 20 years or more

Understanding 楷書　then 行書 we can move to 草書, and then to other styles. I have been studying 7 years and only recently my teacher said, "perhaps I could introduce you slowly to tensho (seal script). And there is still Oracle Bone Script left as the oldest linguistically semi-mature alphabet. In short, after 10 years of studying, one begins to learn what calligraphy is about.
There are no shortcuts in this art.


Below, example of my 草書, although text itself was composed by one of the poets and philosophers of Tang dynasty.

Text in Chinese: 無道人之短無説己之長
Japanese version: 人（ひと)の短所（たんしょ）を言（い）わないほうが� �い、そして自分（じぶん）の長所（ちょうしょ）も言� �ないほうがいい。
Translation: One should not speak of other persons demerits, as well as of his own virtues.

That was my first attempt of merging 5 kanji in one flow. 無道人之短 are written with one stroke of a brush without losing its contact with paper surface.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by komitsuki

There is no huge difference between Japanese and Chinese calligraphy if you think about it. Anybody who is used to practice Chinese or Japanese styles can practice calligraphy in Korean alphabets without too much hassle.

Not as such. First, calligraphy has nothing to do with alphabet, rather its implementation. In other words the way you write it, what you write is a secondary issue. Secondly, there are great differences between Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. Some Japanese styles could possibly not be accepted by the Chinese orthodox calligraphers. Zen calligraphy is only one example.

Current Korean alphabet cannot be studied the way Chinese or Japanese calligraphy is being performed, as it resembles western writing system more than Asian one. Chinese Characters are based on images and links between events, actions or items and their abstract reflection in a form of lines. Korean alphabet is phonetic. It's a completely different philosophy.
In simple words, writing calligraphy is simplified Chinese is a blasphemy and calligrapher practicing it will be ridiculed. The whole point of kanji compound idioms, be it 4, 3,7, 20 etc, is to feel the meaning and sort of live through it without reading it. In western language you read to understand then you feel, in Chinese and in calligraphic Japanese you look and you feel. Don't have to read it.

As an example see a calligraphy of a word 台風 meaning typhoon. Can you sense the wind?
Can you imagine merciless power of nature? Kanji only amplify what calligraphy is whispering, they are not the sense of calligraphy itself.



In fact 　書道 is wrongly translated as calligraphy, or at least it is a great shortcut. As much as western calligraphy is all about writing beautifully, Chinese and Japanese calligraphy are not. It's a way of writing as a path to spiritual enlightenment through practice and studies. It cannot be compared to western art of calligraphy. It also does not mean that both of them have no aesthetic values.

[dogsbody70]

I once saw a KOREAN Film, about a buddhist who lived on a remote island. A young boy was taken there to be brought up by this Buddhist and it was fascinating. One day a young woman was taken to this island for some training in Buddhism I think-- she had been very ill. The young man fell in love with her and secretly had sex with her. The girl was sent away and the young man pined so much so that he wanted to explore the outside world. eventually he returned and a punishment for him was to carve a complete sutra-- on the wooden floor. The carving seemed to be a way to exhaust the young man as he was so very wild and angry.

My japanese friend watched this film but said it was not the way of buddhism in Japan. However I loved the film and the way the young man had been disciplined when he had been cruel to fish and frogs. He had tied the legs of a frog so it could not move and a stone to a fish. so the Buddhist monk tied a heavy stone to the young mans back so that he had to carry it everywhere with him. Yes it was a marvellous film with very little speech.

I wish I knew the title of that film but it was fascinating to watch and consider its morality.

[dogsbody70]

"Thank you. Great master, to teach you on on telephone books. This shows how abstract calligraphers think. He must have been an extraordinary man. It a reference to old school of calligraphy and respecting the paper, which back in a days was very expensive and hard to come by". posted by ryuurui.





I am unsure if you are serious or not. We used telephone pages to practice and practice certain strokes. This young chinese man taught calligraphy and also Mandarin. He was a lovely teacher and most encouraging. He lives here in UK in a cottage close to the sea in SUSSEX. I Unfortunately I could not afford many private lessons.

I did go to a one day class in japanese writing-- it was primarily hiragana a day is not long enough.

Yes I am sure that to achieve excellent art work would take many years of study and practice. One needs to be dedicated which is true of all great arts really.

I wish you well in all that you are doing. It will be well worth while.

where to find a teacher? I wonder.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

I once saw a KOREAN Film, about a buddhist who lived on a remote island. A young boy was taken there to be brought up by this Buddhist and it was fascinating. One day a young woman was taken to this island for some training in Buddhism I think-- she had been very ill. The young man fell in love with her and secretly had sex with her. The girl was sent away and the young man pined so much so that he wanted to explore the outside world. eventually he returned and a punishment for him was to carve a complete sutra-- on the wooden floor. The carving seemed to be a way to exhaust the young man as he was so very wild and angry.

My japanese friend watched this film but said it was not the way of buddhism in Japan. However I loved the film and the way the young man had been disciplined when he had been cruel to fish and frogs. He had tied the legs of a frog so it could not move and a stone to a fish. so the Buddhist monk tied a heavy stone to the young mans back so that he had to carry it everywhere with him. Yes it was a marvellous film with very little speech.

I wish I knew the title of that film but it was fascinating to watch and consider its morality.

the same movie where he shot her dead and then his master asked him to carve the kanji that he wrote on the wooden deck by dipping cat`s tail in hand made ink. Yup seen it as well. I agree, spectacular movie.
I ll try to get you the title, my wife should know it.
I absolutely loved that calligraphy there. I also would not mind having such a place for studying....away from all that technological nonsense.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

"Thank you. Great master, to teach you on on telephone books. This shows how abstract calligraphers think. He must have been an extraordinary man. It a reference to old school of calligraphy and respecting the paper, which back in a days was very expensive and hard to come by". posted by ryuurui.





I am unsure if you are serious or not. We used telephone pages to practice and practice certain strokes. This young chinese man taught calligraphy and also Mandarin. He was a lovely teacher and most encouraging. He lives here in UK in a cottage close to the sea in SUSSEX. I Unfortunately I could not afford many private lessons.

I did go to a one day class in japanese writing-- it was primarily hiragana a day is not long enough.

Yes I am sure that to achieve excellent art work would take many years of study and practice. One needs to be dedicated which is true of all great arts really.

I wish you well in all that you are doing. It will be well worth while.

where to find a teacher? I wonder.

i am sorry if i sounded as i am being sarcastic, no, i was dead serious. I meant that he must have been a great guy. Most important for him was to show you how to write and share the knowledge. I think that is remarkable.

To find a teacher? Well, depends where you are located. Are you in Japan? If yes, I could help you find one.