A short summary:
According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by
Cang Jie (c. 2650 BC), a bureaucrat under the legendary emperor,
Huang Di. The legend tells that
Cang Jie was hunting on Mount
Yang Xu (today
Shan Xi) when he saw a tortoise whose veins caught his curiosity. Inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of those veins, he studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and the stars in the sky, and invented a symbolic system called
zi, Chinese characters.
A knowledge of calligraphy is an important step in the understanding of Japanese culture.
Calligraphy is not merely an exercise in good handwriting, but rather the foremost
art form of the Orient. It is the combination of the
skill and imagination of the person who has studied intensely the combinations available using only lines. In the West, calligraphy was intended to suppress individuality and produce a uniform style.
Japanese calligraphy (
sho in Japanese) attempts to
bring words to life, and endow them with character. Styles are highly individualistic, differing from person to person. Japanese calligraphy presents a problem for westerners trying to understand it; the work is completed in a matter of seconds so the uninitiated cannot really appreciate the degree of difficulty involved. However, bear in mind that
the characters must be written only once. There is no altering, touching up, or adding to them afterwards.
A quick use of Chinese Ink with a calligraphy pen, on a piece of textured soft white paper.
Kaguya Hime
