The History of Japanese calligraphy

A Stroll Down the History Lane!

History of Japanese Calligraphy is as intriguing as the Japanese Culture itself. It originated in China and goes back to around 28 BC. It came to Japan when Chinese culture was becoming more widespread, which was in the periods of 'Asoka' (552-646) and 'Nara' (646-794).

History of Japanese Calligraphy

The 'Kara Yo' calligraphy style, derived from the Chinese calligraphy's use of structure, in there following of strict axes and symmetrical rules. 'Kara Yo' started from around the Kamakura period, which was from 1192 to 1333. Little is known of the history of Japaneses calligraphy within this style.

'Kana' is a Japanese style developed by Chinese calligraphy. The characters in this calligraphy style expresses sound not ideographic, unlike most of the other Asian and Chinese calligraphy styles. The sub-styles used in the 'Kana' calligraphy are; Man'yo-gana, Hiragana and Katakana. Also there are distinctive styles that are common for men and women. The men's hand writing style is known as 'katakana' and 'kenji' whereas the women's handwriting style is known to be 'onokode' and 'so'( grass writing).

The Styles of writing within Japanese calligraphy are; Tensho 'The Seal Script', Reisho 'The Scribe script', Zattaisho 'The ornamental Script', Gyosho 'The Semi cursive Script' and Shosho 'The Cursive Script', Hiragana 'ordinary syllabic script' and the 'Wayo Style' Kara yo 'the Japanese architectural style'. As time went on and as Japanese culture rose, the Japaneses developed there own calligraphy style and writing system called 'Wayo'. This style implemented the 8 basic strokes that would be used in Japanese calligraphy. The strokes are sharper than the Chinese characters.

Calligraphy is known as 'shodo' in Japan which means 'the way of writing'. The Japanese now have 2 main calligraphy styles called 'kana' and 'kanji'.

Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese Calligraphy