Computer and printer written letters are not yourself. To understand this statement we went to a calligraphy and souboku studio for a demonstration by Koshun Masunaga, a master of the art.
She first demonstrated Japanese calligraphy, the art of writing artistically with brush and pens.
She helped several people in our group produce a calligraphy drawing.
Here are the days of the week written in calligraphy. Chinese characters are written at the top and the Japanese characters below. By the time a Japanese student reaches the age of 18 he or she will have learned 2,000 Chinese characters as well as the Japanese characters.
Souboku is the fusion of calligraphy with art using bold brush strokes. She titles this souboku drawing ‘Forest in Moon Light:
Here are some other examples of her souboku:
She uses many kinds and sizes of brushes to create her drawings.
The biggest brush is from selected horse hairs from 200 horses. The others came from cat hair, monkey fur, peacock feathers and split bamboo.
Here are some examples of paper she uses for her calligraphy and souboku. There are pieces of leaves and roots from the Mulberry tree in the paper to give her art a natural and organic feel.
In these days of printers and electronics few people communicate with their writing. Calligraphy and Souboku force a person to communicate with their hand and soul.