Now taking orders for my "Sho," Japanese calligraphy, shipping outside Japan is available.
_________ * Attention 1 * __________
When it is the most soon, a delivery date is about 2 or 3 weeks. However, when order rushes, please wait for about 1 month. ____________________________________
I ask you for an order sheet by simple contents. When there are some question and a request, please write simple English so long as possible. I cannot understand English so.
_________ * Attention 2 * __________
Please send an inquiry or order to a mail address mentioned in this contents. Please do not send an inquiry to my You-Tube account. I do not accept an inquiry by account of You-Tube.
_________ * Attention 3 * __________
Sorry, but I do not accept order from the following countries. "Korea and China"
___The reason____ Recognition for copyright law of two these countries is inferior remarkably. It does not reach measure of world common sense at all.
** I will write characters you like into calligraphy.
Each calligraphy will be suited for you personally, and the form of the character will vary with each person.
Please choose the characters from the 27 kinds shown below. It is 55 dollars(US dollars) per one character. (shipping cost is not included, additional charge will be added)
However, please think that a work more than two pieces is added with "Free service" in the whole order.
-1- First, please tell me your choice in the ordering email. Basically, "one character" looks good per piece of paper. "Two characters" maximum per page.
I suppose there will be at least two or three calligraphies. There may be an increase in the number of papers at times, depending solely on myself, but not depending on the client's wish. In such circumstance, surely "the price will still be the same"****
The characters will be written by changing the Kaisho (standard printed) style into my personal flowing style, somewhat like the Zen brushworks. I will not take orders for Gyosho and Sosho styles (semi-cursive and cursive styles). I will basically not take orders for "Hiragana" characters.
-2- I will begin writing "your calligraphy" after I have received the information. The calligraphies are neither written nor stocked prior to the order.
-3- There will be no frames. The size of the paper is width: 252mm, height: 352mm.
The calligraphy will be written on hard drawing paper, so I will not make back lining. The calligraphy will be sandwiched by thick papers so it will not be bent, and will be wrapped securely in a plastic bag.
4- I will be waiting for you to send me an email after the calligraphies have arrived, confirming that the package has arrived safely without any damages.
When a mail to inform of arrival of my work from you came, I inform you an address of Pay-Pal.
Except the following exception, The payment will be after delivery.****
____Exception____ When there is more than ten pieces in a total of your order, in this case it is "Prepayment"
****[PayPal is the only available payment method for customers outside Japan ]
6- If you also prefer a video on DVD-R(AVI file)or CD-R(AVI file), recording my working process writing the requested character, additional price is "30 dollars"****
***This DVD filmed the scene that I wrote the calligraphy which you ordered. Therefore, it is only your stuff.
The recorded time may vary by the person, but probably will be around ten minutes.
Video is one kind without relation to the number of sheets and a kind of the character which you ordered. I select a scene to record.
The video is recorded by a digital camera. Because it is "AVI file", please watch by software of a personal computer. The resolution is 640x480, considering the file size and the time required for editing.
7- Please note that there will be no refunds under any circumstances.
8- The style of my calligraphy is as is shown in the pictures on this page.
★ Please copy&paste the terms A to D, inside shown below, onto your email. Please fill them in, and send them in your order.
D- Whether you prefer video (DVD-R or CD-R) ___Yes or No___
**************************************** Order example________
No.6(Do) * 1 pieces No.24(Ninpo) * 1 pieces Video * Yes 140 US dollars in total［The postage does not include］
*** In case of most, please think that a work more than two pieces is added with "free service" in the whole order. It is a work occurring in a process to write calligraphy naturally. ***
*Question 1: Can there be multiple calligraphies ordered at one time, (packed in one shipping)?
Answer 1: Yes. And surely, you can make another order again.
*Question 2: Is there any copyright in the calligraphies?
Answer 2: Yes. I have not abandoned my copyright of the calligraphies. I have started this attempt, presuming and in hope that you will use the calligraphy as an aid for you to face yourself.
Therefore, please notify me if you want to use the calligraphy for business and commercial purpose. You can tell me before or after you have received the finished work.
There are creator's copyright and design right in each calligraphy. There will be additional charge if in use for business and commercial purpose.
There is another reason for the notification, in case for commercial use, for example, in use as logos and advertisement signs. When making printing plates, lines too thin might not remain, and the lines will not show in print.
Like the things above, there will be things to be considered beforehand, so please note these points in case you are thinking of business and commercial use.
*Question 3: Can I order the character which there is not from a list?
Answer 3: When you ordered the character which there is not in a schedule, the counseling which careful by both sides is necessity. In this case, if you have some question and a request, please write simple English so long as possible. I cannot understand English so.
A cost is pretty different in this case. Please plan more than 100 dollars.
However a size of papers does not change in this case. In addition, "two characters" maximum per page. In other words the content that you can order does not change. You can order only "a kind of a character" specially.
***In case of special order, as a result of counseling, a case to refuse an order from my side exists.
Summary about Japanese calligraphy
Now Japanese calligraphy(Shodo) is classed in "Six field"
One or two of the them is procedure of Chinese traditional old calligraphy. Four or five rest of field is very enjoyable art born in only Japan.
The Japanese shodo was concluded as commercial design and art after World War II. It isn't simple copying that seems to be copying of a picture art.
But some people are writing on You-Tube is the same as "a primary schoolchild doing it" It is called only "Oshuji" in Japan. It isn't classed in Shodo having commercial value.
Furthermore practice called Rinsho is "copying"of classic work. Rinsho is resembling copying of a picture. This doesn't have commercial value in Japan at all, too. Anybody don't pay money for these(Oshuji and Rinsho) in Japan.
A Japanese calls that merely write a character with writing brush in this way. "Mouhitsu" 毛筆 or "Fudemoji" 筆文字 Those don't have the more than value which those were merely written by paint brush. And a practice for those is called Shuji 習字 and Rinsho 臨書. However, with that alone it don't have value as art and product.
Please consider Japanese Sho-do to be a "Picture art" Artist is always demanded design with creation from people.
In other words commercial value is added only when there is artistic factor. A Japanese likes calligraphy used business. Therefore it is always demanded art nature in Japanese Shodo.
Therefore it is pretty difficult for it to be evaluated in Shodo by a Japanese people in Japan. A Japanese is watching a lot of Shodo every day. Their sensitivity is very strict.
Fortunately, I got a lot of appraisal from person of a Japanese. It is the gladdest for me.
BTW, Chinese calligraphy and Japanese calligraphy have a different beautiful sight. Which they like is free of the people who watches. It is the difference that recognizes a character as "Clean copy'(模写or清書)" or as "Picture art"
____Calligraphy as design is used in the next field in Japan.
Design of a brand name and logotype mark Title character of Film or comics Signboard of a shop For ersonal request For Art-Shodo contest etc,etc,
However, even now a lot of Japanese people are learning Chinese classic calligraphy as a textbook. When you want to write a "very beautiful character thoroughly", please learn Chinese traditional calligraphy. It is complete system as a method writing a beautiful character.
The Japanese calligraphy changed as chaotic art by mixing ugliness and distorsion in the beauty. Japanese calligraphy is resembling the Impressionist or an abstract art when I compare Chinese calligraphy to realism group.
Calligraphy such as a picture of the Impressionists (Impressionnisme)seems to be next.
For example, draw a character of rain like rain. Design a character of snow like snow. Draw a character of thunder like thunder with power.
These are business-calligraphy and art-calligraphy in Japan. Factor of Wabi or Sabi peculiar to a Japanese becomes necessary too.
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【Interview report】
"How calligraphy means to me personally"
A reporter spoke to HouzanSuzuki:
Your calligraphies. They are written very very carefully, cherishingly. But you don't have any attached feeling to the writings at all.
By following the written trajectory of the finished calligraphy, it seems like you can experience that track movement. It's like watching a dance.
HouzanSuzuki responded:
Writing calligraphy, to me who is writing, is not fun at all. That is the very important point.
When I am writing calligraphy, I personally am not enjoying that at all.
However, this is a situation that must be like that, although it is particularly limited to my situation.
Other people out there might enjoy themselves. I don't deny that.
But that is not my job.
My priority is not to get in the way of the writing brush.
After a while the writing is finished, when I see the completed work, then at times I enjoy the writing.
No-mind writing, non-no-mind writing. These two writings are written under the same extended single line of consciousness, likewise as the two states of small enlightenment and medium enlightenment are on the same extension, but the final products look very different.
Whether the results are done well or not, could be judged in an instant. It can be judged very easily. So there are times when tens of paper are torn away.
Conversely, there are times when everything goes wholly well.
There is only one reason for not going well. That is when I "thought" about shaping the character so it looks nice, even a single part, minding even the slightest moment. Even if all the other 99% part goes well, that 1% spoils everything.
Hence, in my situation, the judgment of my work is only either 100 or 0. If there is a sign of thought even 1% in the work, and I didn't like it, I rip it up. I save or give to other people, only the works that satisfy me 100%,
But that satisfaction is not the kind of type that is gained when someone had "something inside him that he wanted to express," and was able to express that outside.
Those are the typical kind in usual art. Those are typical activities of human thought, seen everywhere continuing for thousands of years.
My works become as a result, something interesting to see, as a finished result. I myself am not even trying to write something interesting, at all.
Professional calligraphers tend to seek taste and beauty in the writings, and cheap spirituality at times. Calligraphy teachers tend to "expect their students to enjoy writing" at times.
My writings, when I am writing, "there is nothing."
Something that is there, is nothing else but the slow-fast motion of the brush, and the movement of writing calligraphy.
There are no enjoyment nor satisfaction, no wandering thoughts, no thinking, no expressing myself, no desire that I want to write.
If there was a rare occasion that I could enjoy, is after the writing is finished. Simply put, I am not enjoying it as my own writing.
It is like something written by someone else.
Probably there isn't a single professional calligrapher who could do the same.
"Merely writing without wandering thoughts," even this won't make that possible.
"Not to put some sort of spirit," "not to even put some feeling,"
"not to speak of any reasoning for the writing, nor to speak of the opposite delusion, that there exists no description to the writing."
There are the paper, the brush, the certain mixture density of the ink, and the particular condition of the brush at that moment.
There is also the last character to be written.
There is also, importantly, the situation that this calligraphy is being written to be handed to a certain person.
Or the situation why the calligraphy is being written (for example, to explain some matters.)
"All those situations" are creating the character.
Therefore, the writing is not an art. Certainly it is not an artistic "expression."
So to speak, it could be said as a bit of a natural phenomenon.
Or it can be described in another way.
You may say that calligraphy is something like a "short film of about ten seconds," considering that it takes "about ten seconds" to write a single character. A writing is "a record of a movement" happening in ten seconds. Though it is completely different from something that captures the total scenery at the blink of the moment like photographs.
So "if I define" what calligraphy is, it is not like photographs, the imprint of the instant moment of the view,
"it is the imprint of the movement through the ten seconds" "It is not moving, but it is moving."
Therefore, the work is not moving, but is a movement.
It is completely different from paintings, from the point that it takes about ten seconds to write a character. Paintings require time to complete, tens of minutes for watercolor, and several weeks for oil paintings. Croquis is the fastest drawing, but even that, it takes "about a minute."
Calligraphy can be said as "a still picture of a moving of only ten seconds." A person looking at that, could naturally replay the movement of the ten seconds. By following the movement of the lines, he could recapture it, through his views, tracking by his sight.
The Kaisho style(Kaisho: standard printed style) and classic Chinese characters are clearly pictographic, and "their essential purpose is to transmit their meanings." Sometimes, those characters could not be "lines to lead consciousness" of the person looking at them.
Characters in Gyosho and Sosho styles(semi-cursive and cursive styles) have very beautiful shape, but they also cannot "guide consciousness" of a person.
"Creative calligraphy" so-called from the general public, is too much with "the assertion of the calligrapher himself," trying to discover new possibilities through the thickness of the ink and the formative design. Since those things will be enforced to the viewer, that sort of writing could move people only for a short moment.
Hence, my calligraphy is not categorized in any of the styles. One thing could be said, that it is not avant-garde, but some change certainly happens to the viewer.
I am not sure yet what those changes are, although there are too many cases of the changes happening throughout this single year.
Another thing that could be said, is that some of the people writing calligraphy, try to express "certain atmosphere" that follows the meaning of the character, but I am not trying that either.
For example, when I write the character "Bu: martial arts" I am never trying to express that spirit and that meaning.
To me, characters, not to mention what I am saying is about the characters taking part when I am playing calligraphy, they have almost no relations with "their meanings."
When I am writing the character "Sei: silence" I am never trying to express silence at all.
What is important to me, is inside the original Kaisho style:
Position of points and lines, angles and curvature, and the coordinates. Using those elements as "the framework", and "their coordinates" as framework, although breaking them freely it is written so that only "the shadow" of the original form remains.
In my writings, there are some that I feel they have the most complete form. It is when "written in abstraction," too abstract that the character could not be read.
As an example, when the two character word "I-Shiki: consciousness" is written so that its essence of movement remains, but not by abbreviating or skipping the parts, the form will at the end become a single line, intricately curving.
At times, the characters form to a single point.
But the situation is that, inside that single line or that single point, all the elements of the two characters, "I-Shiki" are contained.
Let me propose an extreme example, if I were to display those sort of works in an exhibition. There would be "five works, each with different brush strokes."
Each of all the works, might only be a single line. However, the way it curves, the flicks, the intermediate motion, everything is different in each single lines. This is because the five lines are based on completely different characters.
It may be difficult to understand only from these words, so I might prepare some images at some time.
But, I think I had shown that image long time before in this BBS. That was the work where the two characters "I-Shiki: consciousness" go through seven stages, and then at the end condense into a single point.
It may be somewhat interesting to see me writing calligraphy, but there is a reason that I sometimes feel meaningless to record it on film. This is because the brush and the hands are obstructing the view.
In order to really record the movement of the writing itself, by detecting and scanning the writing motion in real time, the pure process of the characters being written, without the obstructing brush and the hands, can be reconstructed.
