An Autumnal Afternoon Exploring Shodō Classics

As golden leaves fell in the Woodlands area of Glasgow, our first afternoon Shodō group at KSD was likewise inspired by the ochre earth and expansive heavens, brushing from the magnificent Thousand Character Classic Senjimon 千字文. The afternoon was enjoyable, immersive and educational, split into two parts with a lovely group of curious participants and a friendly atmosphere.

The first part included an introduction to Shodō and the text, and the three styles we worked from, learning about the history of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy in the process. Blair introduced the famed calligraphers 王羲之 Ogishi, 懐素 Kaiso and 松本芳翠 Matsumoto Hōsui Sensei, also looking at physical examples of Japanese shodō works.

After getting the feel for how to hold the fude brush, posture, and the traditional materials, we then spent some time on practicing individual kaisho strokes. We mainly concentrated on working from classic stylistic examples of the kaisho standard script (with 4 characters), gyōsho semi cursive (6 characters) and sōsho fully cursive (6 characters) styles, from Blair’s otehon examples and worksheets, with the techniques and methods he has been trained in over the years in Japan.

Participants learned how to handle ōfude and kofude brushes and find harmony between thickness of ink, types of calligraphy paper, and also understand how to position and size characters effectively with a suitable amount of space for the rakkan signature and stamp area.

At the break we had time for hōjicha Japanese tea and daifuku sweets, and some dark chocolate kept us energised too!

As well as working from the classic styles held in high esteem by Japanese calligraphy schools, we spent some time exploring a meditative approach, and brushed some enso Zen circles, immersing ourselves in the sensory aspect of the practice. Towards the end we enjoyed some free time brushing on shikishi gold edged calligraphy boards, which rounded off the afternoon nicely.