Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, seems worlds away from Tokyo and even Kyoto, especially in the bleak winter January month I chose to visit. In truth, I had been there several times, but this trip was to be a calligraphy supply buying trip in advance of my return to Boston. There is no hustle…
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Master Yamada is the organizer of “Calligraphy Friends From All Over Japan” and a member of the judging panel of the Mainichi Shodo Exhibition, one of the largest
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龍 (りゅう, ryū), i.e.”dragon”. The treasures used were a soft mountain goat brush (羊毛筆) with a long and thin bristle accompanied by thick but dry ink, which
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The work itself is mesmerizing, a brilliant ink application. The dry strokes, so called “kasure” (掠れ, かすれ) in Japanese, ought to add dynamism yet sometimes
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Calligraphy, like music is based upon harmony. It takes a Master Calligrapher to compose a symphony of ink, a masterpiece as brilliant as nature itself, one
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While playing, I realised how closely Skyrim is related to calligraphy. It is a world of its own defined by Yin (陰, yīn) and Yang (陽, yang). The way in which
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To give you some comparisons, it takes me approximately 12-15 hours to prepare 0.5 litres of ink, and I use an ink grinding machine that is capable of
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There is, however, one instance when the magic of ink embraces our days, and we slow down and take a few moments for quiet appreciation.
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One of the ingredients of calligraphy ink itself is animal-bone-extract based glue. The same glue is used for gluing ink pieces together. To accomplish this
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What all the calligraphy styles and schools set in various cultural realities have in common? How do we “read” the calligraphy? How do we relate to that black maze of undecipherable lines, and how can we hear what the ink is whispering to
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