“Stay home” work – Five styles of “home”
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many of us have to stay home for a certain period of time. In my case, some art exhibitions in which I planned to participate have been cancelled or postponed just like other events across the world. I stopped all the creations for the next exhibition. The theme and size of the work that I want to work on have changed. Basic five styles of kanji in calligraphy In that situation, I tried to write various
The first year of Reiwa – new era name of Japan
Japan's new imperial era "令和(Reiwa)" began on 1st May 2019 in Japan. This is a special thing for the Japanese and "元年" means the first year. Reiwa consists of two kanji characters of Rei 令 and Wa 和. As for the meaning, there are several English translation such as "order and harmony" and "auspicious and peace" according to some foreign media. Alongside the Western calendar, Japanese are familiar with the era name called gengo "元号" in daily life. This is used for
“Kakizome” lesson for school kids
I gave some Japanese calligraphy lessons for school kids during winter break. It was fun and great to see their motivation. What is Kakizome? There is a custom called "Kakizome (First Writing) " in Japan. This is one of the new year's traditional events and means the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year. Anyone who wants to express one's hope or favorable words can try to do Kakizome with brush, ink and paper. Positive and lucky words are often
Tokyo Shosaku-ten 2018(Japanese calligraphy exhibition)
I'd like to introduce a Japanese calligraphy exhibition "The 40th Tokyo Shosaku-ten" in Tokyo Metropolitan Art Muesum. "Sho" means Japanese calligraphy and "saku" means "creation". Two of my works are displayed. This exhibition is a competition style and exhibitors created their works under some rules (e.g. paper size and genre of characters). It is held from 26 November to 2 December. The entrance fee is 500 JPY. https://www.tobikan.jp/en/
Welcome
Thank you for visiting the website "Brush Stroke"! In this website, I'd like to introduce basic information of Japanese calligraphy and a variety of works both classics and contemporary creations.