Οι επτά πιέτες (πτυχώσεις) της hakama

H hakama έχει επτά βαθιές πτυχώσεις, δύο στο πίσω μέρος και πέντε στο μπροστινό μέρος. Οι πιέτες, αναφέρονται στις επτά αρετές του Bushido, που θεωρούνται ουσιαστικής σημασίας για τους σαμουράι. Αν και φαίνεται ισορροπημένη η διάταξη των μπροστινών πτυχώσεων (τρεις στα δεξιά και δύο στα αριστερά) εντούτοις είναι ασύμμετρη και αποτελεί ένα παράδειγμα της ασυμμετρίας στην ιαπωνική αισθητική.

Οι επτά αρετές:   
Chu: πίστη
Ko: ευσέβεια
Jin: φιλανθρωπία, συμπόνια
Gi: τιμή ή δικαιοσύνη
Rei: σεβασμός, ευγένεια και ευπρέπεια

Chi: σοφία, εξυπνάδα
Shin: ειλικρίνεια

Οι πέντε πιέτες στο μπροστινό μέρος είναι οι πέντε αρετές Gotoku, της ιαπωνικής παραδοσιακής κοινωνίας (οι πέντε πρώτες αρετές). Όλες μαζί αντιπροσωπεύουν την ολοκλήρωση του ανθρώπου.

Shodo video lessons

Shozo Sato Caligraphy Demonstration

Japanese Calligraphy with Mayumi

Shodo History

Shodo History

What is Shodo?
Special thanks to student Jenna Cullen for the content of this article.

Shodo, or the art of Japanese calligraphy, is an ancient art separate from any other creative work. It differs in that its main focuses are simplicity, beauty, and, most importantly, a mind-body connection. However, despite its differences from what most individuals would define as art, true calligraphy is achieved by applying the elements of art, specifically line, shape and space.

In producing any piece of Japanese calligraphy, mastering the element of Line is an absolute essential. The shape of the line assists in displaying the desired effect of the artwork. Often the line is drawn with a specific focus such as love, determination, or positivity. These feelings can often dictate the type of line that follows (e.g., whether it is wavy, straight, or curved. The tension of the line can also be created in this fashion.

In conjunction with Line, mastering Shape is also an important aspect in producing any Japanese symbol. Because calligraphy is achieved with dragging, pressing, and sweeping techniques, no outlining or drawing is ever used. In creating art other than symbols, especially in Chinese calligraphy, nature is a prominent theme. Organic shapes such as trees, leaves and flowers are common subjects for Chinese or Japanese artists. Because the culture behind calligraphy is continually focused on the beauty and wonder of nature, inorganic shapes such as geometric figures or human-made objects are seldom painted.

Furthermore, the element of Space is essential in creating a beautiful calligraphy piece. It is crucial that the artist remain aware of the placement of each line, especially in more complicated symbols. Often, the artist is required to visualize where each line will start, stop and meet before he even touches the brush to the paper. Without undivided attention to spacing, the finished symbol will fail to appear as desired, even with the most perfect lines and shapes. Presentation and careful placement is one of the aspects that help in giving Japanese calligraphy its distinct beauty.

In sum, Japanese calligraphy to the common eye may seem uncomplicated or even bland. However, the creation of such a simplistic piece involves the knowledge of several difficult skills, and the mastery of all the elements of art, specifically those described.

What is Zen Calligraphy?

Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) believed that true creativity is not the product of consciousness but rather the "phenomenon of life itself." True creation, he stated, must arise from mu-shin, the state of "no mind", in which thought, emotions, and expectations do not matter. Truly skillful Zen calligraphy is not the product of intense "practice"; rather, it is best achieved as the product of the "no-mind" state, a high level of spirituality, and a heart free of disturbances.

To write Zen calligraphic characters that convey truly deep meaning, one must focus intensely and become one with the meaning of the characters they create. In order to do this, one must free his/her mind and heart of disturbances and focus only on the meaning of the character. Becoming one with what you create, essentially, is the philosophy behind Zen Calligraphy.

The information for this article comes from the book Zen Brushwork: Focusing the Mind With Calligraphy and Painting, by Tanchu Terayama, et al.

What are the Historical Origins of Shodo?

Shodo has origins in China, where over 3,000 years ago pictographs were carved into tortoise shells and cow bones as part of religious ceremonies. Overtime, people began carving these same pictographs on bronze and other metals. Altogether, the early forms of the characters used commonly in shodo lacked the evenness in size and shape that today's characters have. Still, they clearly serve as the pictorial origins of the shodo characters in common use today.

At the start of the thirteenth century BCE until the fourth century BCE, the wide variety of pictograms in use in China were consolidated into a form of character script called daiten (greater seal script). By the ruling era of the Ch'in Dynasty (221-206 BCE), government officials further standardized the character script; from that point on it became known as shoten (lesser seal script), which is still in common use today on seals for official documents. During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - CE 220), shoten was further developed into reisho (scribe's script), which was characterized by bold horizontal brushstrokes.

After the development of reisho came sosho (grass script), which preceded kaisho (standard script) and gyosho (running script), the character forms most commonly used today. Kaisho can be thought of as a "block" style of character writing, while gyosho can be thought of as a form of "cursive" or "script". Sosho, however, is written so simply and symbolically that eyes untrained in deciphering calligraphy can rarely read and understand it.

Because the letter set in use in shodo, a Japanese art, has its origins in China, it is referred to as kanji in Japanese, which literally means "Han letters" (for the Han Dynasty in China). The Japanese refined Chinese sosho characters by simplifying them further to create the hirigana character set. Today, written Japanese is primarily a mixture of kanji and hirigana.

The information for this article comes from the book Zen Brushwork: Focusing the Mind With Calligraphy and Painting, by Tanchu Terayama, et al.

http://www.zenshodo.com/history.htm

What is Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy)

What does Shodo mean?

Shodo is Japanese calligraphic art.The direct English translation for Shodo is "The Way of Writing". It is considered one of Japan's traditional cultural arts. Sado (Japanese tea ceremony), Kado (Japanese flower arrangement) and Budo(Japanese martial arts) are also well-known cutural arts of Japan. Children in Japan learn Shodo at school, but as with other traditional cultural arts, it takes a long time and a lot of practice to master the art of Shodo.

What do you write in Shodo?

As with other cultural arts, learning Shodo starts with imitating the Master's Art. Children at school imitate the Shodo textbook, children who take Shodo lessons imitate their teacher's work. Advanced Artists imitate the works of Great Shodo Artists from centuries ago.

Imitating the great works of the past is called Rinsho, and is one form of artistic expression in Shodo. This may sound strange to you, but think about classical music; people today play the works of Beethoven and Mozart, which is considered a form of artistic expression rather than "copying" someone's art.

With enough experience of Rinsho of different works and different Artists, you are ready to add your creativity to Shodo. Some artists create Art inspired by the great works from the past, while others create unique styles.

Different Types of Characters for Writing

The main difference between Shodo(Japanese Calligraphy) and Chinese Calligraphy is that Japanese Calligraphy has multiple types of characters for writing compared to Chinese Calligraphy.

In Shodo, there are mainly three types of characters;

Kanji (Chinese Characters)
These letters were imported from China around the 3rd century. As Buddhism came in from China and Korea around the 6th century, Kanji became more important in order to read and write the Sutra. Kanji was also arranged and used to express the Japanese language because Japanese did not have a form of writing before that time.
Each Kanji has a meaning in itself, and could have multiple ways to pronounce the letter. The letters are used in combination to express words, phrases and sentences. Over the years, details of some of the characters have changed, but even today, Chinese characters used in Japanese are same as what are used in Chinese.

The main themes of Kanji Shodo Art are copying the

Copying of the Sutra of Buddhism
in gold ink on dark blue paper

sutra of Buddhism, imitating the works of great Shodo Artists of China (which is called Rinsho), or creating original styles inspired by the great works of the past.

Kana (Japanese Characters)
Kana is similar to the alphabet, and they are phonetic letters. This was created in Japan around the 8th century after Kanji was adopted. The origin of Kana letters is cursive writing of Kanji, but you can hardly tell which Kanji letter was used for each Kana letter. Compared to Kanji, Kana is soft and feminine, and was mainly used by women or to write poems in the Heian era . Today, Kana (usually called Hiragana in modern Japanese) is widely used in the Japanese language, and is what children learn to read and write first.

The main theme of Kana Shodo Art is Rinsho of the poem books of the Heian era such as the "Kokin Waka Shu". This poem book is acutally a collection of more than 1100 pieces of Waka (poetry with a fixed form) selected by Kino Tsurayuki and others in the early 10th century.

Modern (Mixture of Kanji and Kana)
Today, we use both Kanji and Hiragana to express Japanese. Therefore, In Modern Shodo, modern Japanese phrases are often used as themes, and new ways of expression could be seen more than traditional ways of writing.

Themes of Modern Shodo could be phrases from a book, sayings by famous people, or simply words or phrases that you like.

http://www.shodoartclub.com/What is Shodo.html