Japanese Calligraphy Demonstration in the Republic of Moldova

Date: 26^th May, 2012

Place: Foundation for Moldovan-Japanese Relation 

I had chance to meet Mr. Valeriu Binzaru who is the president of Foundation for Moldova-Japanese Relation at my friends’ wedding party on 25^th May 2012 and hear that their students were keen to learn and had strong interest for Japanese Calligraphy.

I told about my experience about teaching Japanese Calligraphy in Romania for 6 years and we decided to have “Japanese Calligraphy Demonstration” at the foundation. On that day, many students from advanced class participated to the demonstration on 2

Summery for Demonstration

1. Japanese Calligraphy is one of the Japanese traditional art. Balance between black ink and white space is very important because which crate beauty. The character itself has many ways to express beauty of movement and riotousness, balanced and harmony according to tick, thin, deep, right, smooth, big, small, strong, weak, long, short etc.  By the pressure, inclination, and direction who gives to the brush, producing thinner or bolder strokes, and smooth or toothed borders. Eventually, the speed, acceleration and deceleration of the writer's moves, turns, and crochets, and the stroke order give the "spirit" to the characters by influencing greatly their final shape. First of all, we should learn stroke order and technic using Chinese and Japanese classic by the Sage of Calligraphy as an ideal model.

1. The term Sanpitsu (三筆) or "three brushes" is used in Japanese to refer to a group of three famous Heian period calligraphers: Kūkai 空海（弘法大師）774–835, Emperor Saga( 嵯峨天皇)786–842 and Tachibana no Hayanari, (橘逸勢) 782-842. You can find Sanpitsu (three brushes) in each period in history, but no-one left more of a mark on subsequent ages than the Sanseki because of their high-toned and elegant style.

1. Japanese had learned great script culture from ancient China such as Shang Dynasty (殷), Qin (秦), Warring States period (戦国), Southern and Northern Dynasties(東晋), Han Dynasty(漢), Sui Dynasty(隋) and Tang Dynasty(唐) then created an original Japanese culture during Heian period (794-1192) like Hiragana and Katakana characters and gave a strong influence on Japanese culture in later years.

1. In chronological order, there are Oracle bone script(甲骨:Koukotsu), Oldest script(篆書:Tensho), Classic script(隷書:Reisho), Standard script (楷書:Kaisho),Running script(行書:Gyousho), Cursive script(草書:Sousho) etc. Learning technic and a variety type of scripts gives your father an insight of Japanese Calligraphy and new discoveries of attractiveness. We could feel every breath Kukai, the one of greatest monk, took in the ninth century and a part of Heian life behind his stroke and visualize honorable smile of Emperor Saga behind a bamboo blind clearly in our mind's eye. These are the all about Japanese Calligraphy.

Practice

Firstly, I showed the technic of Japanese Calligraphy such as correct strokes, stroke order, character structure, balance, and rhythm. Secondly, we wrote students’ names in Kanji checking the Kanji dictionary for meaning and found suitable Kanji for their names.

There were not enough time as I had only an hour for demonstration, however I was so appreciate that all students listened my story with strong interest. I hope I could offer another chance to enjoy Japanese Calligraphy together.

At the end, I may please express my appreciation for Mr. Valeriu Binzaru who gave me this great opportunity for having culture exchange with great Moldovans.

26^th May, 2012

Romania Brasov Musashino Center

The former director Okubo Akio