The Japanese word for brush calligraphy – shodo – literally means ‘the way of writing’, which I think perfectly captures the essence of it.
Shodo is so much more than just handwriting with a brush. It is an art, a pastime, a passion for many. Scratching the ink from a block onto a stone tray, then dipping your brush in and swishing it over wafer thin writing paper is almost therapeutic. I took my man for a shodo lesson, and suddenly the kanji (Chinese characters) he had been learning at school became even more intriguing…
That is one of the things I love about Japanese culture – whatever they do they do it with such care, attention and love. As the famous Zen buddhist Shunryu Suzuki said, “It’s not what you do that matters, but how you do it”.
