Modern Japanese calligraphy demonstration by Tokyo artist, Dec
7
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| Tokyo artist Isa Hirano performances
Jaiji-sho style calligraphy. (Courtesy of the
artist) |
The Nibei
Foundation's Japan Study Club on December 7 will feature
calligraphy artist Isa Hirano from Tokyo.
Hirano's artwork
consists mostly of single Chinese characters drawn in ink on paper,
ranging from postcard-size to three meters in length and breadth.
These are sometimes embellished with colored paint or gold
dust.
Hirano has received
commissions for several large performance pieces of up to 4.4 x 3.0
meters at corporate and government events.
The December Japan
Study Club will bring a rare chance for Los Angeles people to
observe Hirano's Daiji-sho style performances in person.
After the event,
her works of calligraphy will be for auction. Prices range from $25
to $150 depending on size of works.
The Nibei
Foundation
Japan Study Club's
Dinner/Lecture Series
Tuesday, December
7
Reception and
dinner at 6:30 pm
Followed by
presentation at 7:30 pm
Admission including
dinner: $10 per person
RSVP required by
Dec 3 at www.nibei.org
For more
information or RSVP, email japanstudies@nibei.org or call (310) 479-6101
ext 134.
The Japan Study
Club will be held at Terasaki Foundation Laboratory Building, 11570
Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.
 |
| Tokyo artist Isa Hirano poses before her
work of calligraphy read as "Ai" (Love) in the Life of The Mind
exhibition at the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in
Central California. (Cultural News Photo) |
Japan's
Calligraphyor Shodo - the Way of Writing - is one of the
contry's traditional art forms. It's an artistic expression of
Chinese characters (kanji) and Japanese phonetic symbols
(kana) through fude (calligraphy brushes) and
sumi (black) ink.
The expression of
calligraphers' inner truth in the shape of letters, each of which
is a product of extreme spiritual concentration, is the main
objective of shodo.
Each letter is
judged by several aesthetic factors such as boldness and softness,
thickness of lines, flow of strokes, dark-light contrast, amount of
sumi applied and the overall balance.
What the letter
means is also an important factor to be considered.
Shodo-ka, a calligrapher, is an artist who reveals
kotodama, the spirit of language, using a fude and
sumi.
Classic-style poems
and prose written in kanji through five distinctive
shodo styles - Ten-sho (Seal Script),
Rei-sho (Clerical Script), Kai-sho (Standard
Script), Gyou-sho (Running Script), and
Sou-sho (Cursive/Grass Script).
Each style has a
different aesthetic idea and calligraphic methodology. Today's
Kanji Shodo blends tradition with modern expressions.
Daiji-sho, literally means the "big letter
Shodo," consists of one or two large letters. With highly
disciplined strokes combined with creative innovations such as the
color of sumi-ink, Daiji-sho has become the latest of
the modern Shodo styles.
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