Calligraphy, the key to express Japanese culture; thoughts put into ink.
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen swas born in Kyoto, Japan, and now lives in Zurich. She has been working with calligraphy and painting (Nihonga) since childhood, and has taught calligraphy in Japan, in the USA, and is presently teaching in Zurich. Chikako has held numerous exhibitions inside and outside of Japan. Her goal in art is to achieve a unity of calligraphy and Nihonga painting.
Milena Rampoldi: How did you find your way to Japanese calligraphy?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: It was my mother’s dream that I should excel in calligraphy. Since we have had generations of calligraphy masters in my family, she decided that I must also follow in this tradition. So, as soon as I started to recognize words, I was sent to a local calligraphy teacher on a regular basis. At the age of five, I could already wield the brush. And when I entered elementary school, she made me a student under a well-known calligrapher, Fukada Hōsen, a member of the close circle of disciples around Hibino Gohō (1901 – 1975) and, by the way, the only female disciple of Gohō. Hibino Gohō is one of the most important Japanese calligraphers of this century, and he actively promoted the use and research of Japanese-style classical kana calligraphy. My apprenticeship under Fukada sensei changed my life and I have been learning from her for over forty years.
MR: What is the importance of calligraphy in Japanese art, philosophy, and culture?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: Calligraphy is central to Japanese art. For a long time in Japan’s history, calligraphy was seen as the most important art form. This was also the same in China: the importance of calligraphy in East Asia is hard to overstate. As a consequence, all the elements of brushing ink became important: the shades of black of the ink, the basic brush skills, the various special techniques, the leading masters and their works, and an appreciation for calligraphy that can only be felt “through the skin.” All these became a part of the aesthetics of calligraphy.
Calligraphy also became central to Japanese philosophy, especially as expressed through its religious leaders, such as those in Zen Buddhism. There is a long tradition of expressing profound thoughts in ink. This tradition came originally, together with Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy, from China. Again, it was though that inner personalities were expressed through calligraphy, and so the writings of leading religious figures were revered and treasured in various collections.
As a part of Japanese culture, calligraphy has always been there as a key form of cultural expression. It was something that always had been there as a part of regular expressions and thus inseparable from Japanese culture. With the advent of the computer, however, writing by hand and brush is now becoming a special skill – but until then it was part of daily life, part of education in schools, and part of the expressions of any educated person.
MR: What are the relationships between calligraphy, poetry, and religion?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: These relationships can perhaps be best expressed through the calligraphic arts of the Heian period (794-1185). During this period, calligraphy was developed from Chinese forms and the Japanese traditions can be seen in texts of the period, for example, The Tales of Genji. Here we see its use in poetry on special occasions, as ways for expressing inner emotions.
This was connected to practice later on, for example, during the Edo period (1615-1868), where monks and nuns such as Rengetsu, Ryōkan, Hakuin, and others expressed both poetry and religious thoughts through calligraphy. Here we see the development of calligraphy from the high and exclusive society of the Heian period to the poet-monks of the Edo period, and to people who tried to spread calligraphic expressions to wider audiences, by tying it together with religious thoughts.
MR: What are the importance of empty spaces in the Japanese world vision?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: Empty spaces are very important! In Japan, one communicates through emptiness and silence – and this is especially so in calligraphy. The empty spaces are just as important as the written spaces – one cannot ignore the presence of nothingness. The ability to create and control empty spaces comes only at the end of a very long practice, after years of effort. Empty spaces in calligraphy are also related to the culture of silence: speaking and silence – both are just as important in expressing inner feelings and thoughts.
MR: What are the most important things that one can learn by practicing calligraphy?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: Holding the brush and practicing is basic to learning calligraphy. One cannot learn through sitting back in a chair and thinking. And learning from the masters of the past – from the classic period, which in Japan was the Heian period and China in the Tang period (618-907) – is vital to developing skills and forms of expression. As for deciding the most important masters and periods, this depends of course on individual preferences, but I prefer the Tang period.
The most important lesson of calligraphy is learning inner truths. It is not only about forming shapes, but a searching for inner directions – and, again, this ability only comes from a long period of practice. Through your search you eventually find your own forms of expression: paradoxically, copying the masters will eventually lead to self-expression.
MR: Can you explain to us in a couple of sentences what Zen poetry means to you, and how it can be expressed in calligraphic art?
Chikako Fukami-Thomsen: I see Zen poetry in terms of images, nature, and emotion. When I see images conjured from the poetry, then I try to think of a way to turn them into calligraphy. The decisions I take include the choice of paper, the forms of the characters, the shapes of spaces and lines. I try to make the poem live within the calligraphy. In Zen poetry – such as that of Ryōkan – we see the details of nature: the seasons, the flowers, and even the colors of the grass: these images also urge expression in words. Finally, turning poetry into calligraphy also includes paying attention to the feelings expressed within the poems: feelings of longings, of happiness, of sadness – all these also need to be formed into strokes of the brush. I see Zen poetry in terms of weaving a complex fabric: the wefts are the feelings, and the warps are the scenes of nature. Combined they create the Zen poetry as expressed through calligraphy.
– See article with illustrations at : http://www.promosaik.blogspot.hk/2016/03/japanese-calligraphy-interview-with.html#sthash.0bwpu7eF.dpuf
