Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully. In Japan, calligraphy is also called Shodou.
There are different forms of calligraphy. Some people write on the paper and then paint the background to express the idea of the poem or saying that they wrote.
There are also different types of material paper used in calligraphy. The different paper is used for different effects. For example, on batik paper it is difficult to express fine strokes.
YUME (DREAM)
This character is read "YUME" in Japanese. Its meaning is "DREAM".
The right character is written in KAISYO style and the left character is in SOSYO style.
HANA (FLOWER)
KAZE (WIND)
movies:
http://markun.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/japan/shodou/s1.mov
To prepare the ink, a "Sumi" stick is rubbed back and forth on an inkstone.
http://markun.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/japan/shodou/s2.mov
She is writing the character "Yume" which means "DREAM" in English.
Look how fast she is writing this and it looks beautiful.
http://markun.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/japan/shodou/s3.mov
This is written using a small callingraphy brush.
information from http://markun.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/japan/shodou/index-e.html]Shodou's Room