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Calligraphy Workshop

Written by Sandy Marker

Today we approached Ikebana from a different angle, no flower arrangements but turned our hand to calligraphy.
If we look back through Sogetsu history the founder Sofu Teshigahara created some magnificent Shodo hangings to accompany his works.

Our guest, Master Hiroe Mayumi (7th Dan of the Calligraphy Institute), demonstrated various words in orange ink making it look very easy with gliding strokes. With sample words in the ready we unwrapped our package containing a felt mat, two calligraphy brushes and several sheets of calligraphy paper. Sumi-e ink set out in front of each participant we started creating some very interesting versions of words such as ‘moon, life’ etc.

Left-handed members were challenged and found it easier to use their right hand because many strokes in Shodo cannot be executed using a left hand moving the brush in a contorted method. I think a lot of practice is needed to make my work recognisable