Tokyo streets during winter; calligraphy in Japanese kana script: ねむるまち (nemuru machi), i.e. "a street alseep".
Not sure how many readers of the Japan in Photography blog know this, but aside being a photographer I am also a calligrapher. I have been promoting and teaching the art of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy for a few years now, and throughout those years I realised that the Westerners have difficulties with appreciating the art of Far Eastern calligraphy. It is a very abstract and demanding type of art, placing many obstacles between the artwork and the viewer, where the language barrier is only one of them. What stoke me the most was that people desperately seek a connection between the form of Chinese characters they see, and real-life objects they can link those characters to, visually. In other words, they look for physical resemblances between the shape of the brush strokes and shapes of material objects that surround us. My guess is it puts the mind at ease, or in a comfort zone, giving some point of reference. Sadly, this is a clear symptom of misunderstanding the art of calligraphy. Japanese calligraphy is all about the energy of the brush strokes, and the abstract nature of Chinese characters, characters that should not be read but sensed. Then I thought of merging the art of Japanese calligraphy with photography in a way that would create a aesthetic symbiosis between those two types of visual arts. Artistic photography tells a story, a story of state of mind, and it tells it through an imagery. It captures a brief moment, but its message is eternal. Japanese calligraphy is very similar in this respect.
Tokyo streets during winter; calligraphy in Japanese kana script: ねむるまち (nemuru machi), i.e. "a street alseep".
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Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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