Japanese calligraphy as an occupation
- odawaraetsuko1
- 8月25日
- 読了時間: 3分
2025/08/25
I have previously written about Yuki’s story of Japanese calligraphy. In Japan, calligraphy is one of the popular activities that people get familiar with from when they are very young. Yuki is in her early twenties and has been practicing calligraphy since she was an elementary school student. She was involved in practicing calligraphy most in high school. Now she is too busy to practice calligraphy often as she did before but calligraphy still has an influence on her life. She said that through practicing calligraphy she feels calm and gets composed enough to solve challenges from the environment, her worries, and problems in real life.
Today, I want to share with you more about a view of Japanese calligraphy as an occupation from these angles:
the form of the occupation,
the function of the occupation,
and the meaning of the occupation.
To look at Japanese calligraphy in a big occupational picture, let’s imagine Yuki engaging in calligraphy.
Japanese calligraphy as an occupation
Situation: Japanese calligraphy is a kind of traditional art in Japan. Almost all kids have calligraphy practice in elementary school and middle school. Many Japanese people believe that calligraphy speaks about the writer’s personality, who they are and how they live. Yuki is in her early twenties and works in a hospital. She started practicing Japanese calligraphy when she was very young and has always belonged to calligraphy clubs in schools. Now she sometimes practices Shakyo, writing Buddhist scriptures.
The form of the occupation: In Japanese calligraphy, you write characters and words on really thin paper special for calligraphy, using a brush and ink special for calligraphy.
Following calligraphy rules, you practice and copy letters in a classic calligraphy model. You need to focus on writing carefully to copy letters in details of their shape, sizes, width and angles, meticulously checking at the alignment of the whole.
Yuki started attending to Japanese calligraphy club when she was elementary school student. She has been belonged to calligraphy clubs in schools until she graduated from university. She has been most involved in practicing calligraphy in high school. After classes, she always went to the calligraphy club room and repeated practicing and copying Japanese classic calligraphy works. Sometimes she worked to entry her works for exhibitions. She other times worked for calligraphy performance with her club members. Since she started her carrier, she hasn’t practiced calligraphy as before but she sometimes enjoys practicing Shakyo.
The function of the occupation: Practicing calligraphy requires to focus on writing. While writing copying classic calligraphy works, other things pass out of Yuki’s mind and she focuses on writing only. Then she gets calm down and composed more. Calligraphy supports her to be mindful to what is going on.
When Yuki gets restless or anxious because of her worries or problems in her life, writing supports her to calm down and get composed to treat her problems in real life. Writing effects in supporting her to get mindful and encourages her to treat her problems.
Because of her carrier, Yuki is too busy to do calligraphy. But she uses writing, just writing out her problems on a piece of paper, to get mindful, so she could treat her problems.
Calligraphy also showed Yuki who she was, like that she sometimes was good at writing but other time she wasn’t.
Practicing calligraphy effects not only in supporting her to develop her calligraphy skills but to grow her as a person. That makes her confident and happy.
The meaning of the occupation: For Yuki, practicing calligraphy is making efforts. That supports her to accomplish calligraphy skills, to being confident with her skills and her growth as a person. Calligraphy supports her to calm down and to encourage her to treat her troubles in life, and it also shows who she has been and is.
コメント