The calligraphy exhibition of master Ishitobi Hakkō (石飛博光), Tōkyō, July 2011

[ryuurui]

I wrote an article about the calligraphy exhibition of Master Ishitobi Hakkō, which I visited last month. It was definitely one of the most interesting exhibits that I have ever had a chance to see. Here is a link to first part (out of three in total).

Beyond Calligraphy | Blog | The calligraphy exhibition of master Ishitobi Hakkō (石飛博光), Tōkyō, July 2011, Part 1

[ryuurui]

part 2 of 3

Beyond Calligraphy | Blog | The calligraphy exhibition of master Ishitobi Hakko (石飛博光), Tokyo, July 2011, Part 2.

[japan1234567]

That's really very impressive...
Thanks!

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by japan1234567

That's really very impressive...
Thanks!

You're welcome.

Link to the last part:

Beyond Calligraphy | Blog | The calligraphy exhibition of Master Ishitobi Hakko (石飛博光), Tōkyō, July 2011, Part 3.

[japan1234567]

Originally Posted by ryuurui

You're welcome.

Link to the last part:

Beyond Calligraphy | Blog | The calligraphy exhibition of Master Ishitobi Hakko (石飛博光), Tōkyō, July 2011, Part 3.

...really very interesting. Thanks ryuurui. I once saw outside Ikebukuro subway station a street calligraphy artist doing this job for some money. What do you think of the calligraphy knowledge level of the street artists?

Do you think they did some calligraphy studies? I unfortunately didn't take a picture for showing you how their calligraphy looks like.

[ryuurui]

I saw one in Ueno, when I went to see the ancient Chinese ink rubbings in the museum. Well, if he studied calligraphy anytime in his life, it must have been a long time ago. His handwriting was full of mannerisms which is typical for those who are self-educated. Line was weak and うるさい (not settled, loud), and 行気 (energy flow within the line) disturbed. I would lie if I said that I had liked it. Nonetheless, I would not be surprised if he sold works not only to the foreigners. It happens often so that even those who study calligraphy for years have little knowledge of the art (I mean the native speakers).

In Japan there is this scary trend of studying calligraphy based on tehon (手本, written example, usually in red ink) received from the teacher, whcih is probably the worst imaginable way of studying this art. This method is usually proposed by those instructors who are lazy, or simply are lacking knowkledge of the ancient scripts and history. Which again leads to them being lazy. A lot of people think that raching the level of 師範 (master/instructor) is the end of the road, whereas in fact, the road only begins there...

I remember when my teacher said (he was 71 at that time, I think) - "I finally have reached the stage, where I am ready to start in-depth studies of calligraphy". And that comes from a man who has a scholastic approach to this art for past 55 years of more. He was a calligraphy master when i was not even in my parents' plans. It is said that if you do not pick up the brush to write every day, your skill will wither. However, reading and researching is as important as writing. So, those who only write and do not learn by digging the past, are stuck in the mud of no progress forever.

For me, calligraphy is like breathing, if I stop my art dies, and so does my soul.

[Nameless]

Very interesting indeed, but are there bigger size photos or videos?

[ryuurui]

Thanks, Nameless. You've got it there. We are currently working on the site to make it pull scale images of works, when clicked on. Same way as it is done with the images from our gallery (they are puled from Flickr). Now, what I think would be best is to have pictures being displayed in full res. with description at the bottom. And that is what is causing issues...

[Nameless]

Flickr Services

This should help, if the developer of the website is unaware of it, that is.

You can do pretty much everything you want with that.

I wish I could attend a shodo presentation, unfortunately, there aren't many here, there was one on july, but I wasn't able to go.

I could even have enrolled in a shodo workshop...

[ryuurui]

I am not sure where you are located, but good exhibitions are hard to come by outside China, Japan and Taiwan, and maybe HK. For this reason, we will try to organize something in Europe, hopefully next year, with combination of presentations and lectures in universities (art, Japanese, lang., oriental culture, etc.). There are few people that would love to go (Japanese masters), but language barrier and age make it tough to arrange. But I am sure if we put our heads together, something good will come out of it. If time and money permits, that is...