The annual exhibition of the esteemed Hankeido (攀桂堂, はんけいどう, Hankeidō) Workshop, renowned for manufacturing traditional Japanese brushes known generally as unpei fude (雲平筆, うんぺいふで), was held recently at Takashimaya Nihon-bashi in Tokyo. Under the guidance of esteemed Master Jūgosei Unpei (十五世雲平), the owner of Hankeidou Workshop (攀桂堂), and his son Fujino Unpei (藤野雲平, ふじの うんぺい), Fujino Junichi (藤野純一, ふじのじゅんいち), with a history dating from the Shoutoku Era (1711 – 1716), Hankeido … [Read more...]
Symphony of Ink, Part I
Could a maze of random brush strokes pause the human mind, throw its never-ceasing clock off rhythm for a split second and force it to orbit around the shiny eclipse that embraces the centre of galaxy black? Is it possible to entrap in a magical vessel cast from the clay of very few lines, a message so complex emotionally that it creates the time to stop and wonder? Is it possible to fashion subliminal visions encoded in the very same simple lines linked together by a symbiotic spiritual bond … [Read more...]
Logic Behind The Magic – Brush Techniques, Part III (b)
Part III(a) introduced three groups of brush operation methods, that conclude a calligraphy stroke, namely: 起筆（きひつ, 、kihitsu, lit. “brush awakening”）, 送筆（そうひつ, sōhitsu, lit. “sending the brush {on the paper surface}”)）, and 収筆（しゅうひつ, 、shūhitsu, lit. “finishing, or, restoring the brush” {to its former position}）. In Parts III(b), (c) and (d), I will talk about each of those in detail. In this article, let us focus on the 起筆, i.e. the moment the brush descends to the paper. Given that … [Read more...]
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