In March at our monthly shodō groups, at the spacious Woodside Library as well as at our friendly online class, we brushed the characters 楽道 rakudō which means easeful way, or joyful path.
Individually the characters are commonly brushed in Japanese shodō calligraphy, and together are sometimes brushed in zen calligraphy referring to the easeful practice of meditation, and for us at the group it felt more closely connected to our meditative and enjoyable experience of brushing calligraphy.
Blair showed examples of the visual background and pictographs in the kanji, for instance the musical instrument connection in 楽 raku and the sense of journey with foot at the crossroads in 道 michi/dō. He gave demonstrations of the strokes, and styles of both characters together, in the 楷書 kaisho standard script and the 草書 sōsho fully cursive style. Blair also brushed the semi cursive 行書 gyōsho briefly. Then we wrote our own rakkan signature with our names in Japanese to the side of our calligraphy.
Although 楽 raku was a complicated kanji to brush with many strokes (particularly in the kaisho), after a few practice runs of both kanji, thankfully participants shifted into the easeful path and flow of the day’s shodō! Thanks so much to everyone for taking part.
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