Shodo classes in Japan - Part III
The next morning we got down to work with a style that undoubtedly attracts many of us with a strange force, perhaps because of its ancient and mysterious origin, perhaps because of its rough and at the same time simple beauty, and which is not the easiest to master. Finally, our beloved tensho, the seal style, arrived. The first existing style of calligraphy (its origin dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries BC), characterized by mostly carved characters, due to the non-existence of paper and silk as supports, or the brush as a writing tool.
The master began by giving us an interesting historical introduction supported by the images he showed us from his study books. He continued with practical examples for the realization of the characteristic circular beginnings of the tensho style strokes. Observing how he moved his body with each stroke, we witnessed from a position as direct as it was privileged, how his brush became a natural extension of his own being and feeling, with a hypnotic power of transmission. The moment was so magical that as soon as the master finished his explanations he made us all set off for our workplaces eager to immediately put all these new movements into practice, as if it were a new and attractive dance.
Taking advantage of the fact that the day was dedicated to the seal style, Hikita Sensei sat next to Rocío (my sister), who days before had brought from Spain her first carving practices on different stones and with different sizes and kanji, with the desire that the teacher could correct her. And he went further, since the intention of sitting with her was to teach her from scratch about the carving technique, called Tenkoku, with all the necessary tools at hand. Although Rocío already had experience in carving on wood and stone thanks to her studies at the Las Palmas School of Art, she was able to test under her own practice and with the attentive attention and direction of the teacher, this new technique, which, to begin with, differs from her previous knowledge, for example, having to carve with the burins from the outside in. This new technique was more complicated for her and even caused her to get some wounds in the area of her hand that suffered the continuous friction of the burin while she was carving; But he soon realized that this technique would prevent possible major accidents and he soon got hold of it.
Meanwhile, Nakamura-san, a faithful student of Hikita Sensei, accompanied us during all the classes we received, also acting as a support when it came to helping us with the explanations and corrections of our exercises. Only with his gestures he denoted a fervent admiration and eternal respect for Hikita Sensei. They hardly needed verbal communication between them so that the teacher did not lack anything during the teaching, attentive to when and how to put or remove the hanshi paper from the table so that the explanation that Hikita Sensei gave us was always fluid and without interruptions; and with deep affection, we were all well attended to. Once the day's session was over, Nakamura-san surprised us with a great gift for each one of us. Because he is also dedicated to teaching, he gave us some study books used by Japanese calligraphy students at the University where he works, with the intention that we would not lack organized and varied material to study upon our return. As soon as we got on the train back home we started to leaf through this comprehensive book, where we found articles related to the history of calligraphy and some of its outstanding masters, examples with stroke orders of many classic calligraphies of Chinese origin and in various styles. There is also a large section dedicated to the study of kana, full-colour manuals that describe step by step some specific technique to practice tenkoku… and that would guarantee us work for at least a whole year.
