The Hands-on Calligraphy Workshop

Date: Saturday, December 14, 2019
Venue: Minato City Life Long Learning Center

A total of 27 people participated in this program, including eleven non Japanese attendees. As usual, we had the pleasure of having Kanada Suimu sensei, a member of the M ainichi Shodo Association, as our instructor.

The workshop proceeded as follows:

1. Explanation about the history of calligraphy as well as tools
2. Exercise of writing Kanj and Hiragana characters, copying the model written characters
3. Fair copy on the Shikishi square cardboard

Major comments from the participants:

• While it was the first time in a while, I felt very fine.
• I had a prejudice that it was difficult to deal with, but I decided to practice from now.
• It was quite difficult.
• I enjoyed the workshop very much. I was glad that I could do the fair copy on the Shikishi squareboard.

Comment from MUA staff:
When the exercise started, the way non Japanese attendees held writing brushes looked awkward.
However, as they proceeded, most of them enjoyed the unique and artistic calligraphy. Japanese participants enjoyed an opportunity to touch on the Japanese traditional culture together with non Japanese people. We are very glad that we could provide a venue where people enjoyed the cross cultural exchange through calligraphy.

(Written by HIRAKATA Kazuyo, Vice president of MUA, and translated by SUDA Yasushi, the PR &Internet Committee Associate)