Hello, I’m a relatively new shodo calligrapher. While practicing, I’ve had the issue of my hand shaking uncontrollably, preventing me from making straight lines, or ruining strokes altogether. Is there anything I can do to make my hands more steady?

I've been considering getting into shodo lately, and in doing a bit of research I learned that it not only has a ranking system, but that it uses the dan system. As a martial artist (and very briefly a go player,) I found this interesting, and I was hoping to learn more about how the kyu/dan ranks are implemented in shodo. Is ranking a common thing amongst hobbiests, or do only the more serious practitioners do it? Is it commonly done outside of Japan? Who certifies ranks? What sort of criteria goes into being ranked? How seriously does the community at large take ranks? Things like that.

Overall, this will have very little affect on whether or not I choose to try my hand at shodo, but whether I do or not I am very interested to learn more about this topic.

Hi,

I'm planning to get a tattoo of the following phrase from a story by Hakuin:

「ああ、そうか」

I tried to learn some shodō but I wasn't able to make anything that looked good! The regular script wasn't too bad but I want to have the cursive sōsho style.

Does anyone know how I might go about commissioning someone to write this for me?

I have always wanted to have my own Hanko, but do they normally come from the calligrapher's Kanji name? And what about foreigners who want to have one?

I found an online shop who can make very neat custom made hanko in my country and I want one for my birthday gift this month, but I just don't know what to write on there 😂

Thank you in advance 🙏🏻✨

https://preview.redd.it/3a9j4xv0owzd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b8ffb55132117a4211dfad8c59cc9ac29295571

Hi all, I’ve done a workshop in shodō during my holiday in Tokyo. I instantly fell in love with it, bought all the equipment to get started and found myself questioning myself: How do I learn to do this by myself?

I’m based in the Netherlands so I already figure that there’s no shodō school in my area so are there any resources recommended for absolute beginners?

Hi everyone,

I hope I do not offend with this question, but I am very interested in getting a tattoo of a quote written in a shodo / brush stroke style as seen in this sub reddit. However, before I commit to a tattoo, I want to be sure I am writing the correct quote.

Is there any resources available to find a correct translation of a quote to shodo script?

The quote I am referencing is "Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world" quoted from Miyamoto Musashi

Thank you for your time!

I've been practicing shodo for about a year now and have recently been studying the history of shodo/shufa in depth. My question is, does anyone know of a detailed list or chart of all (or most) of the different scripts? I don't mean just the well known 5 or 6 like small seal, large seal, standard, semi-cursive, cursive etc. I mean all the obscure ones like worm script, draft cursive script, bird script, etc. If it's in English, great, if not, that's fine too. Thanks!

A friend bought this painting but couldn't identify what's the name of the artist written in it.

I asked my japanese teacher (native japanese) and she said even herself couldn't read it, since it's like a pen name.

Anyone has any guesses or has came across it?

https://preview.redd.it/i5512lmpuxud1.png?width=221&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa096bb152b7d049a04326fd203556390a1aaae9

I got this calligraphy in a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. I'm not even sure whether it's Japanese or Chinese let alone distinguish the cursive characters. Can you guys figure it out? Thanks

https://preview.redd.it/bawcmn1ratrd1.jpg?width=3744&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3752616bb121b6ab08f40ebaa5b370d31fbec01