Japanese Calligraphy, Shodo, its Chinese Origins and Zen Bond

Japanese calligraphy, shodo in Japanese, is the calligraphy brushed in Japanese. As it happens with many other artistic manifestations in Japan, Japanese calligraphy has its origins in Chinese calligraphy. For many centuries one of the most praised calligraphers in Japan was Chinese Wang Xizhi that lived in the 4th century.

Still, since the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries were attached to the Japanese writing system, Japanese calligraphers started to create native Japanese approaches of calligraphy.

Types of Japanese Calligraphy

The traditional types are roughly the same in Chinese calligraphy as in Japanese calligraphy. They are as follows:

1. Seal Script, tensho in Japanese, an ancient 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 language

5. Cursive, sosho in Japanese language, also named Running Script in English

The Four Treasures of Asian Calligraphy

The 4 essential utensils you use in traditional Japanese calligraphy are called the 4 Treasures and they are: the brush, the ink stick, rice paper - also called mulberry paper in the West- and  the ink stone to ground the ink.

Chinese Calligraphy Beginnings and Outset in Japan

Chinese calligraphy goes back three thousand years, when pictorial figures or pictographs were engraved on bones mostly with religious purposed. Later on, in the Qin reign, the script was systematized as it had became a decisive tool for governing the Chinese state.

The Chinese way of calligraphy was brought to Japan around AD 600. Since that time, in Japan calligraphy has been practiced continuously. It has formed its own style particularly in the Zen school.

Nowadays in Japan students train in the art of Japanese calligraphy and it can be studied in high school or universities along with other art disciplines such as painting or music.

Finally, the emergence of performance calligraphy has made it a well-liked interest practiced together in clubs by the younger generation. Performance calligraphy has also been presented to the Western world and it seems to captivate many people.

Japanese Calligraphy and Zen

Zen has had a significant influence in Japanese calligraphy. The most common symbol of the Zen style of Japanese calligraphy is the enso circle. The calligrapher draws the enso circle of enlightenment in one fluent stroke that can’t be modified or altered.

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

The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo: Japanese Aikido 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, also 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 distinctive Japanese Zen calligraphy T-shirt makes a singular inspirational gift for Zen followers, Buddhists, meditation, Yoga and Martial Arts and Aikido practitioners, a great gift for a birthday or any important event|celebration.

The Dawn of Aikido and Morihei Ueshiba Sensei 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 conciliation. To a layman this assertion can be difficult to accept when you see how Aikido practitioners strike at each other at high tempo. In spite of that it is true, the underlying truth of aikido and numerous martial arts are harmony and tranquility.

Aikido was created by Morihei Ueshiba, born in Japan in 1883 to a family of farmers. Paradoxically, he was quite delicate as a child and boy and he spend many hours reading and on quiet activities. It is said that he even thought about becoming a Buddhist monk. It is quite fantastic that he later created a string of Japanese martial arts. It isn’t how you would envision the founder  of the widespread Aikido martial arts.

Regardless, Morihei Ueshiba came from a tradition of samurais and his father would tell him all the time about the adventures  and courage of his granddad. Ueshiba's father was engaged in politics and one day he saw how the supporters of a competing political group attacked his father. That same day he decided to work on his physical shape .

He studied 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 a foot soldier in the Japanese armed forces and he displayed such promise that he was recommended for the Military Academy. Nonetheless, he quit the army and went back to the family farm. In 1912 he moved with his wife to Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

Morihei Ueshiba's aikido took inspiration from older martial arts practices from Japan. One of them was Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu, which he learned seriously with sensei Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido. It was at this point and with Takeda as his teacher that Ueshiba began taking the study and training of martial arts seriously.

After Morihei Ueshiba departed from the island of Hokkaido, he met Onisaburo Deguchi who taught him the Omoto-kyo religious practice derived from traditional Shinto. Deguchi's pacifism and his spirituality made an extraordinary impression on Ueshiba. This would contribute considerably to the spiritual philosophy underlying Aikido.

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

In 1942, he moved to Iwama from Tokyo and started a dojo and the Aiki Shrine. He started calling his practice Aikido for the first time. Aikido is often rendered 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, meaning Great Teacher or Great Master.

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

Ueshiba created a system that has assisted many thousands of people throughout the world. A number of decades after his passing, Aikido practitioners still regard him as their supreme teacher, their Sensei, their master.

The Straightforward Mind Is The Dojo

Japanese Zen EnsoT-Shirt with Original Zen Enso Circle Calligraphy

Meditative Zen Enso Circle t-shirts and apparel show your Zen aspirations in an artistic form. The popular Zen Enso Circle on t-shirts and apparel is a splendid form of zen art that will inspire you and anyone who see it when you are wearing the Zen Circle t-shirt swearshirt or hoodie.

In Zen Buddhism the Zen Circle is seen as a symbol of enlightenment, infinity, the universe -the unsurpassed meditative state, the search for enlightenment. As a matter of fact, an Enso circle can symbolize many concepts in Zen Buddhism such as the unceasing circle of birth, death and rebirth or form and emptiness.

There aren’t strict, fixed rules to brush a Zen Enso as an enso manifests your state of mind when you shape and create it. An Enso Circle can be tranquil or vibrant, calm or energetic, expansive or sober. There are no two ensos alike. A famous Enso Circle by Fukushima Keido, a Japanese Rinzai Zen master who died in 2011 had the form of a triangle, but the Zen master considered it an enso all the same.

Most Zen ensos start at the lower left, but they can be brushed from any point of the circle. Creating a Zen Enso Circle isn’t about brushing a flawless; imperfect  is perfectly fine, because it is humans who draw the universal circle. The ink doesn’t have to be deep black all around the circle either, it can fade or vary, and can be wet or dry. Finally, the Enso circle may be open or closed as well.

The Enso Circle has become one of the most widespread images of Zen art, at least in the West, and the symbol of Japanese Zen aesthetics and spiritual arts.

Traditionally, the tools and principles used for brushing an enso are the same as in traditional Japanese calligraphy: brush, ink and rice paper. Usually, you brush a circle in one fluid stroke and once you have created the enso, you don’t adjust it in any way. It is what it is at that moment, which is like saying the expression of your mind at that very moment.

Brushing a Zen Circle is a spiritual practice that anyone can incorporate into  their lives. It is the Way of the Brush, as Japanese calligraphy is understood.

enso symbol