Calligrapher Knows Where To Draw The Line

from the 3/02 paper Ibaraki Report

Allow me to introduce Mr. Yōichi Tagi, the resident calligrapher in the International Affairs Division of the Ibaraki Prefectural Government. He has devoted himself to calligraphy for many years. He appreciates the shape of Chinese characters and has studied their historical evolution.

How long does it take to do calligraphy? In Mr. Tagi's words, "a lifetime." He practices every day. Rubbing the ink stick on the stone with a bit of water to make ink is a meditative endeavor. There are machines one can buy to accomplish the same task, but they lack the hand-held touch. The actual calligraphy itself is done in little more than a breath, depending on the scale of the project. A single project may require dipping the brush in the ink a number of times, depending upon the effect desired by the calligrapher.

How do you decide what to write and how to write it? Therein lies the art of calligraphy. Both in content and in style, the calligrapher's interpretation is front and center. Mr. Tagi showed me a slim volume of photos of works from the Heian period (794-1185). Next to the photos was the text in Chinese characters. And next to the that were Mr. Tagi's own notes. "I need to understand the meaning of the next if I am to render it faithfully," he explained.

Characters from more than about 100 years ago were written and interpreted differently than they are today. As a result, most Japanese have difficulty discerning their meaning. And the highly interpretive manner of writing them in various calligraphic styles further complicates the matter. Mr. Tagi wrote out the character "wind" in five distinctive styles, starting from the current usage of the character to its early origins some 2200 years ago. It required some imagination to follow along with the changing shape of the character over time.

Once you have selected the characters and understood their meaning, you are ready to put brush to paper. The goal is to convey the meaning of the character through the way you write it. Mr. Tagi gave me samples of his interpretive abilities. The characters for "courage" ("yūi" or 勇気) he drew in a strong, bold manner. A viewer nearly could divine the meaning without knowing what the characters themselves meant. "Friendship and love" ("yūai" or 友愛) he drew with a softer, flowing touch that was warm and round. He also provided an example of his calligraphy in hiragana ("fureai" or ふれあい for "contact") that was a graceful and elegant, fully in keeping with the meaning, "fellowship."

Mr. Tagi has placed a number of his works on a website, which you can find at http://homepage2.nifty.com/tagi/.