Japan's Calligraphy Masters & Styles

About this book

From Kukai to Ryokan, from the Three Brushes of the Heian court to the ink revolutionaries who hung beside Abstract Expressionism — this is the complete English guide to Japan's calligraphers, schools and scripts. 200 entries in eight parts trace the hands that made the art: the sutra copyists and court masters, Zen's ink traces and the warlords' letters, Koetsu's dancing brush and the Meiji masters who remade the brush as 'shodo', the modern giants and the living tradition. Every entry explains not only who the calligrapher was, but how the line was written, how to read it, and how to meet the work today — in museums, temples, shrines and classrooms. A visitor's craft section teaches the first minute before a scroll, the reading of seals and boxes, goshuin, shakyo, and how to write your own name in ink.