Japanese Calligraphy, Shodo, its Chinese Roots and Zen Interconnection

Japanese calligraphy, known as shodo in Japanese language, is the calligraphy brushed in Japanese. As many other art expressions in Japan, Japanese calligraphy has its origins in Chinese calligraphy. For many centuries one of the most admired calligraphers in Japan was Chinese Wang Xizhi that lived in the 4th century.

Nevertheless, since the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries were incorporated into the Japanese writing practice, Japanese calligraphers started to produce their own Japanese approaches of calligraphy.

Different Kinds of Japanese Calligraphy

The classic types are almost the same in Chinese calligraphy as in Japanese calligraphy. They are as follows:

1. Seal Script, tensho in Japanese language, an time-honored style of calligraphy

2. Regular Script, kaisho in Japanese language, at times named Standard Script in English

3. Clerical Script, reisho in Japanese

4. Semi-Cursive, gyosho  in Japanese

5. Cursive, sosho in Japanese, at times called Running Script in English

The Four Treasures

The 4 fundamental tools you use in traditional Japanese calligraphy are the 4 Treasures and they are: the brush, inkstick, rice paper - also called mulberry paper in the West- and  the ink stone to liquefy the new ink.

Chinese Calligraphy Roots and Outset in Japan

Chinese calligraphy goes back 3000 years, when pictorial representations or pictographs were carved on bones mostly with religious grounds. Eventually, during the Qin dynasty, the writing was homogenized as it had became a crucial instrument for governing the Chinese state.

The Chinese way of calligraphy was introduced to Japan around AD 600. Since that time, in Japan calligraphy has been practiced uninterruptedly. It has unfolded its own ways particularly in the Zen approach.

At Present in Japan pupils train in the art of Japanese calligraphy and it can be studied in high school or universities along with other art subjects such as painting or music.

Finally, the emergence of performance calligraphy has made it a fashionable pursuit practiced together in groups by the young. Performance calligraphy has also been introduced to the West and it seems to fascinate many people.

Japanese Calligraphy and Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism has had a remarkable impact in Japanese calligraphy. The most common symbol of the Zen school of Japanese calligraphy is the enso circle. The calligrapher depicts the enso circle of enlightenment in one single free-flowing stroke that is never modified or altered.

Japanese Zen calligraphy, the Way of the Brush, is a form of meditation in action.

The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Zen T-Shirt

Aikido T-shirt, with an original hand-brushed calligraphy of the Zen saying Jiki Shin Kore Dojo, meaning The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo, that can also be translated as The Straightforward Mind Is The Place Of Practice, The Direct Mind Is The Place Of Enlightenment. The free flowing calligraphy is available in the cursive or semi-cursive style of Japanese calligraphy. This original Japanese Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a rare motivational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any important occasion|celebration.

The Emergence of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido is known as the Art of Peace. Not only Aikido but authentic martial arts are based on a philosophy of peace and reconciliation. To a layperson this assertion can be hard to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners strike at each other at high tempo. However it is true, the key doctrine of aikido and numerous martial arts are harmony and tranquility.

Aikido was developed by Morihei Ueshiba, born in Japan in 1883 to a farmers' family. Paradoxically, he was quite frail as a kid and youngster and he spend many hours reading and on quiet activities. It is said that he even contemplated becoming a Buddhist monk. It is quite impressive that he later established a series of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would imagine the mastermind  of the widespread Aikido martial arts.

Regardless, Morihei Ueshiba came from a heritage of samurais and his father would tell him frequently about the deeds  and audacity of his granddad. Ueshiba's father was into politics and one day he saw how the supporters of a competing political group assaulted his father. It was that day that he decided to work on his physical shape .

He explored jujitsu and judo, among other martial arts, but he didn't really make them his own for several years. At the time, the early 1900s, he was an infantryman in the Japanese military and he showed such potential that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nonetheless, he quit the armed forces and went back to the family farm. In 1912 he relocated with his wife to Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

Morihei Ueshiba's aikido took inspiration from previous martial arts practices from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he practiced seriously with master Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was then and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and training of martial arts wholeheartedly.

After Morihei Ueshiba departed from the island of Hokkaido, he got to know Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice derived from traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made a crucial impact on Ueshiba. This would contribute enormously to the spiritual tenets of Aikido.

Uesiba developed the Aikido martial arts between 1925 and 1942 and gave it several names. During these years, he had a number of spiritual experiences and understood  that the true intention of a real warrior wasn't to defeat the enemy but to prevent killing.

In 1942, he relocated to Iwama from Tokyo and started a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. He began calling his practice Aikido for the first time. Aikido is often translated as The Way of the Harmonious Spirit, The Way of Unifying with Life Energy or Ki.

He taught the Aikido martial art for about twenty years and he became known as O Sensei, which means Great Teacher or Great Master.

In spite ofhis pacifism the Japanese government decorated him several times. Before his death in 1969 Aikido had already expanded to Europe, Australia and the USA. Today Morihei Ueshiba's Aikido, or the Art of Peace, is practiced across the world.

Ueshiba devised a practice that has helped countless people all over the world. Several decades after his passing, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their unmatched teacher, their greatest master, their incomparable Sensei.

The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo