Japanese Calligraphy

こんいちは！

Today the crew and I tried our hand at Japanese Calligraphy (書道 shodō). I know what you are probably thinking, it's just painting some lines on a piece of paper; it can't be that hard! Well, it is much much more than just that! It requires a great deal of patience and calm, something you might not think the MBS crew would be good at!

We practiced 5 main strokes today: the horizontal stroke, the vertical stroke, the right diagonal stroke, the left diagonal stroke and the circle. Sounds simple enough, but each stroke has its own precise technique and it is much more difficult to master than you might think. After a bit of practice we tried our hand at some words, either in kanji or hiragana. I was incredibly proud of how well the

students did. They all paid such close attention and you can see that in their work!

I was pleasantly surprised; it was the quietist

Kerri's 'fire' (hi)

I've ever known the class!

We all really enjoyed it! If you haven't tried it already we definitely recommend it! All you need is a good brush (fude) with a nice tip, some ink and paper. I have posted a great video tutorial by Saiso Shimada below along with some of the students work. Check out the rest in our Art Gallery! Give it a try!!

Nick's "Morning" (asa)

Grace's "gold" (kin)