Shodo Calligraphy is one of the Cultural Heritage Arts in Japan. I had a mentor who taught me Aikido and at the same time, he was the finest master in the world of Shodo Calligraphy. His name was Seiseki Abe. (Died in May 2011. He was 96 years old.)
He said, “To understand Japanese cultural arts, the idea of ‘Ki’ must be understood. The idea of Ki is inherent in all of the arts such as, Shodo, Tea Ceremony, Ikebana (Kado), Architecture, Gardening, Swords, Fine Arts and Crafts…etc.”
The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, often visited Abe Sensei’s house for the last 17 years of his life. There O Sensei learned Shodo and left a lot of his Shodo art works. Abe Sensei used to share some stories about O Sensei with us. We can still learn about O Sensei’s Ki by studying and seeking Ki in his art work. O Sensei learned Shodo from Abe Sensei and Abe Sensei learned Aikido from O Sensei. They had the bond of a mentor/disciple relationship.
People who study Shodo find it difficult at first when writing (with a brush) to move the brush with thousands of hairs running dynamically toward one direction. This movement is not like a regular painting with a brush on a paper. When I saw Abe Sensei’s demonstration for the first time, I thought Shodo was an art beyond writing. I used to learn Shodo in Junior High and High School, but at that time, the main focus was to just write the words correctly. When I met Abe Sensei, my eyes opened up beyond that point. Before then, the act of writing was mainly for communication through letters and words. But, when I saw his demonstration and art work, I changed my thinking. At the same time, I felt the superiority of the ancient people’s wisdom. They valued Shodo as an art beyond a method of communication.
This was something I learned from Abe Sensei’s Shodo instruction, that there is the three dimensional space when writing a line with a brush. He said, “Feel the depth of letters written in two dimensions (on the paper). There is an invisible line between letters.” His first lesson was always how to make a point with a brush and make a line.
To us as Aikido practitioners, Sensei said to understand “Ki” and “Ki no nagare” or the flow of Ki is important. For this understanding to begin, he suggested his Aikido students to learn Shodo or the way of writing with a brush. He also suggested his Shodo students to learn Aikido. A few times when Abe Sensei was alive, we had a Japan trip. In 2004 and 2005, I took my Aikido students (mostly American people) and went to see Abe Sensei to learn Aikido and Shodo Calligraphy. He demonstrated in front of everyone. He wrote one line with a big brush and said, “This is what I just painted.” Then he wrote another line again, “This is a real line.” It was the same line as before (painted) but looked slightly different. “Can you see the difference?” One was just painted on the paper and he said, “How about the other one?”
It seemed to us that he just painted two lines with the same movement, but each line was different. When he demonstrated again. We took a look at the tip of the brush very closely and carefully, and when he demonstrated one more time, we could notice the slight difference. When I saw Abe Sensei’s demonstration, his stroke was like the tip of the brush was moving like a living being. It was a very dynamic movement. It looked to me that his brush moved together with his body and with three dimensional movements. And then he asked someone to grab his other hand (left) while he wrote the line with his right hand holding the brush. The person who was grabbing his left hand lost his balance. It was a quick second but gentle. It was the moment that Abe Sensei showed the Ki of Aikido. In other words, it doesn’t matter if he wrote a letter on the paper or threw an opponent.
This Abe Sensei movement of such efficiency as well as gentleness and preciseness reminds me of what I mentioned earlier, he said, “To understand Japanese cultural arts, the idea of ‘Ki’ must be understood.” The idea of Ki is inherent in all of the arts. It seemed to us as if his energy were fully expanding within such limited space (in writing). This concept is a common point in many other Japanese cultural arts. People who study these arts find it difficult at first to understand how such strictness of form can be the mode of personal expression, but paradoxically this strictness of form leads you to master the precious, elegant, and efficient movements in these arts.
Abe Sensei taught us that there are three styles of writing. These are Kai-sho (kah-ee; block style), Gyo-sho (gyoh; semi-cursive style), So-sho (soh; cursive style), in other words, hard, soft and flow.
According to him, “Everything returns to a point. If the point is extended, a line is formed. If you contract the line, it returns to the point.”
When Abe Sensei visited LA in 1992, he gave me one Shodo writing as a gift, which was “Ki is found in a point. Ki is the point.” Shodo is a work for seeking a point, where no time and space exist within the point. It is just about remaining there eternally. With such eyes, please look at Abe Sensei’s Calligraphy. I will exhibit all of his arts in the near future (on Jan. 16th, Sat, at 10am by Zoom)! Don’t miss this great opportunity
Best regards,
Haruo Matsuoka
President Doshinokai Foundation