Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese Calligraphy is as intriguing as the Japanese Culture itself. It originated in China and goes back to around 28 BC. It came to Japan when Chinese culture was becoming more widespread, which was in the periods of Asoka (552-646) and Nara (646-794).

History of Japanese Calligraphy

The 'Kara Yo' calligraphy style, derived from the Chinese calligraphy's use of structure, in there following of strict axes and symmetrical rules. 'Kara Yo' started from around the Kamakura period, which was from 1192 to 1333. Little is known of the history of Japaneses calligraphy within this style.
'Kana' is a Japanese style developed by Chinese calligraphy. The characters in this calligraphy style expresses sound not ideographic, unlike most of the other Asian and Chinese calligraphy styles. The sub-styles used in the 'Kana' calligraphy are; Man'yo-gana, Hiragana and Katakana. Also there are distinctive styles that are common for men and women. The men's hand writing style is known as 'katakana' and 'kenji' whereas the women's handwriting style is known to be 'onokode' and 'so'( grass writing).
The Styles of writing within Japanese calligraphy are; Tensho 'The Seal Script', Reisho 'The Scribe script', Zattaisho 'The ornamental Script', Gyosho 'The Semi cursive Script' and Shosho 'The Cursive Script', Hiragana ordinary syllabic script and the 'Wayo Style' Kara yo 'the Japanese architectural style'. As time went on and as Japanese culture rose, the Japaneses developed there own calligraphy style and writing system called 'Wayo'. This style implemented the 8 basic strokes that would be used in Japanese calligraphy. The strokes are sharper than the Chinese characters.
Calligraphy is known as 'shodo' in Japan which means 'the way of writing'. The Japanese now have 2 main calligraphy styles called 'kana' and 'kanji'.

• Kaisho Kaisho literally means “correct writing”. In other words, this is the style in which each of the strokes is made in a deliberate and clear way, creating a form that is very similar to the printed version of the character that one might see in a newspaper.
  This is the form that students of calligraphy study first, since it is close to the everyday written characters they are already familiar with, but at the same time it gives them the opportunity to get used to using the brush (fude) correctly.
  Below you can see the character for “dream” written in kaisho style on the left, and on the right as written using a word processor. Notice how similar they are in form.
  
• Gyousho Gyousho literally means “traveling writing” and refers to the semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. Like cursive handwriting in English, this is the style that most people will usually use to write with when taking notes. Furthermore, as with English cursive style, what are written as separate strokes in kaisho style flow together to form a more rounded whole in gyousho. Text written in this style is can usually be read by the majority of educated Japanese.
  The same character is written in gyousho below with the printed version for comparison once more. Notice how it is more flowing and artistic.
  
• Sousho Sousho means “grass writing” and refers to the flowing cursive style of calligraphy. Here, form supersedes readability as the calligraphy artist rarely allows her brush to leave the paper, resulting in a graceful, swooping shapes. Only those trained in shodou are usually able to read this type of script.
  Notice how the shape of the character is now almost completely unrecognizable as the same kanji in print on the right. It is now more a stylized work of art than a vehicle for conveying information.