Custom Japanese Calligraphy
by
Jonathan Maples
&
Ryugyoku Yamada
Join the St. George Shibu (St. George Calligraphy Club) and improve in both ranking and skill of your shodou. Each month your booklet shows your previous month’s ranking for submission and a video demonstration of the kanji (character) to work on for the next month.
All works must be received by the 5th of each month to be judged by Ryugyoku and then your top three works will be sent to a prestigious Calligraphy Society in Japan for final ranking and submission.
Yoshimi
Maples is a calligraphy master trained and affiliated in only Japanese based Calligraphy societies, who had the name Ryugyoku bestowed upon her. This name means Dragon Egg, and is derived from her Sensei's calligraphy name. The picture to the right is of her Japanese Calligraphy Class, which is taught every Thursday evening at the community arts center in St. George, Utah.We love to share our knowledge and expertise of Japanese art and culture with others. Terms and definitions are provided below.
Shoudou-
Shodou is the term for the art of Japanese calligraphy. Shodou literally means "the way of writing".
Calligraphy Tools
Fude- The Fude is the brush. There are many sizes of brush depending on the need. The tips of the brush are made from various animal hairs. Japanese calligraphers hold the large brushes straight up and down with the thumb, index and middle finger.
Sumi- Sumi is the ink that is used for writing. The ink can be bought in liquid form already in a bottle, or can be ground from the Sumi Stick. Grinding the ink takes time and is labor intensive, but allows one to better control the consistency of the ink. The bottle inks also vary in quality and residual effects on the paper. Noubouku ink is one high quality ink which we sell.
Suzuri- The suzuri is the grinding stone used for creating ink from the sumi stick or holding the ink from the well. The suzuri consists of two parts, the oka or hill and the umi or ocean. The oka is used to create a good tip with the fude when writing and the umi is used to hold the ink. Custom Japanese Calligraphy sells only the finest kits that contain both stone or plastic suzuri.
Shitajiki- The shitajiki is a felt mat used underneath the hanshi or washi calligraphy paper to create a smooth, undisturbed writing surface.
Bunchin- The bunchin is used to hold the paper in place on the shitajiki and prevent it from moving during the writing process.
Writing Styles
Shodou contains many varied and beautiful writing styles. Only the three main styles are listed to avoid confusion.
Kaisho - The Kaisho style is the standard style most often used in writing and for beginners. In the example below, the kaisho is written on the left and the same characters are written in Gyousho to the right. Gyousho - The gyousho is the semi-cursive style. It takes many years of practice to learn the feel of this style.
Sousho - The sousho style is a full cursive writing technique. It omits many of the brushstrokes or combines the strokes into shorter versions. To write and read in this style requires years of diligent, specialized training. In the example above the Kaisho is written on the left with the same characters written in the sousho style to the right.
