Antes de aventurarnos en el abismal reino de la caligrafía china y japonesa, tenemos que preguntarnos ¿qué es lo que significa caligrafía? La etimología de la palabra caligrafía es griega y su origen deriva de κάλλος kallos "belleza” + γραφή graphẽ “escritura”. Aunque esto pueda abarcar al significado de la usualmente conocida disciplina de la caligrafía Occidental, sin embargo, como una habilidad de escritura estética no refleja la verdadera identidad de la “caligrafía” del Extremo Oriente … [Read more...]
Logic Behind The Magic – Brush Techniques, Part III (a).
Part I, Part II(a), and Part II(b) of this series about brush techniques described arm positioning principles (腕法, わんほう, wanhō, i.e., the way the arm is utilized while holding a brush) and brush holding principles (執筆法, しっぴつほう, shippitsuhō, i.e., the position of fingers on the brush axis), respectively. In this article I will discuss brush operating principles (用筆法, ようひつほう, yōhitsu hō), i.e. the way in which the brush is controlled by the arm, wrist and finger, allowing the calligrapher to write … [Read more...]
How to understand Far Eastern Calligraphy? (Part One)
Before we venture into the abyssal realm of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, we need to ask ourselves a question: what does "calligraphy" really mean? Word "calligraphy" has Greek etymology, and it derives from κ?λλο? kallos "beauty" + γραφ? graphe~ "writing". As much as this may cover the meaning of commonly known craft of western calligraphy, as a skill of aesthetical writing, it does not, however, reflect the true identity of Far Eastern "calligraphy". Why is it so then? First, let us … [Read more...]