Shodo is the art of expressing characters and words, using a fude (writing brush) dipped in sumi (black ink) produced by grinding an ink-cake on suzuri (inkstone), and writing on sheets of gasenshi (thin handmade paper). These bunboh-shihoh (“four treasures of stationery”) are the essential elements of sho (calligraphy).
Nowadays most people in Japan are literate but only a handful can perform sho. This form of artistic writing is practiced only by experts who have learned classical calligraphy techniques, and is different from writing characters in a stylish manner.
According to shoka (calligrapher) Koji Kakinuma, sho is a living entity. He says, “Most characters we encounter in life are simply typography without flesh and blood. What I’m trying to achieve through sho is letting blood circulate through these characters, helping them rise from the dead.”
Sho has accompanied the development of kanji characters, which are said to have originated in China 3,500 years ago, Over this long history, sho has been practiced by master calligraphers called nohitsuka in every era and dynasty of China and Japan. Sho left behind by past nohitsuka became “textbooks” for shoka of later eras, and nohitsuka of new eras emerged from shoka groups who learned classical texts. Repeated over hundreds of decades, this legacy of sho is today’s inheritance. Even now, penmanship practice with classical models called rinsho is indispensable to becoming a master of shodo, the way of writing.
Mr. Kakinuma says, “We constantly practice rinsho like conversing with great master calligraphers of the past, learning how those masters breathed and feeling their rhythm of writing, so we can explore how good writing can maintain beautiful natural balance. After such painstaking effort, we may be able at last to bring a glimpse of individuality to the world of sho, I believe. If classical texts are kata (styles), and we adhere to these kata most of our lives, the supreme goal is becoming a kata-yaburi (style breaker).”
He continues, “Sho is a one-time-only art of expressing ‘nowness’ (immediacy). Even when rewriting the same character thousands of times, it isn’t the same sho. However, stroke order and classical cursive styles follow long-established rules. Calligraphers who can bring ‘nowness’ to characters while conforming to strict rules are worthy of being called nohitsuka.”
Our project team asked Mr. Kakinuma to write three sho works. After spreading gasenshi (calligraphy paper) over a mosen (felt mat), he practices kuusho by test-writing characters in space while planning strokes with a fude (writing brush). Then, the fude is dipped in sumi (black ink) — a choice of deep black noh-boku (thick ink) or usu-zumi (thin ink) for beautiful bleed gradations.
Calmly regulating breathing, the shoka makes the crucial first stroke (nyuhitsu) on the paper that determines the finish of the work. Afterwards, the fude is guided along through the natural flow of characters, following rules of stroke order and classical cursive style. As a line is drawn, breath is held or exhaled; when the fude tip is lifted from the paper, breath is inhaled. Then the shoka promptly moves on to the next dot or line. Once the flow of writing starts, it cannot be stopped and should not be corrected by overwriting a stroke. But sometimes a flawed start can be redeemed by the quality of the work in its entirety.
After completion, the fude is set aside and the work is checked. Mr. Kakinuma says, “We write sho on paper placed on the floor, but we elevate the work and attach the paper to a wall to observe it. If characters ‘rise up’ before you, then sho is vigorously alive.”