Scarey Kanji

As part of the recent "Tokamachi Renaissance" (a.k.a. "spending more time in my Town, with my Town"), last night I went to a shodo, or Japanese Calligraphy, class. I found out about the class when my teacher found out about the Japanese Language classes at the Community Centre. When I turned up, Yanagi-san, the guy at the front desk, took me too the classroom and introduced me. I think the teacher was a bit worried when I turned up because he could speak no English. I was pertrified. But he started speaking to me slowly and clearly so I could understand and that relaxed me a lot.

He was worried that I might find kanji and shodo a bit difficult so he asked me to watch the other students first. Then he lent me a brush and showed me how to write the kanji for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 properly. He made it look so easy, so I was confident I could do it when I tried. I didn;t think my first attempt was to bad, but then he showed me, little by little, where I needed to improve; this part needs to be squarer, this stroke needs to rise, this needs to fall. I definately need a lot of practise before I can go onto the more difficult kanji.

And if just different kanji wasn't enough, The teacher also showed me the different styles of shodo, each style writing kanji in fewer strokes so they can be written quicker. You can see these faster styles on many shop signs around Japan.

I was hoping the class would teach me more kanji, but it's started with the simple ones and progress much later. I don't know if I'll go to the next class or use teh time to practise kanji on my own. I might buy some brushes and practise at home before I decide.