December 19, 2008
The Art of Shodo
Wessel (L) and David (R) practice their shodo (Japanese calligraphy) skills.
All the students contributed different kanji. The Japanese use a stamp known as a hanko as their signature, and all the Japanese students "signed" their kanji with their small red stamp.
On the bottom row, you can find David, Wessel, and Poom's kanji.
David's, on the bottom right, says 星, hoshi meaning star.
Wessel's, in the centre, says 花, hana meaning flower.
Poom's, on the left, says 寿, kotobuki meaning longevity.
Our three EF international students Wessel, David and Poom have been learning Japanese calligraphy (shodo) once a week from Maruo-Sensei, a master calligrapher. At the final class before the winter break, all the students got to write different kanji together on large pieces of paper for display in the school. Here you can see Wessel and David practicing in the shodo room, as well as the final results, with Maruo-Sensei’s avant-garde style of kanji (and some English!) at the top of each sheet.