[ryuurui]

Thanks jurianbai.

Well, it will be rather impossible to explain in few sentences , but I will try. The difference is huge and on the other hand none. First of all, Chinese calligraphy has few thousand years of history and tradition, when the Japanese one is only 1500 years old (more or less). The moment the Chinese characters begun to flow into Japan all five core scripts were already developped (seal, clerical, cursive, standard, semi-cursive).
So, the moment Japan was learning how to write (around late 5th century C.E.) China was going through cultural golden age (Tang dynasty 618-907th century).

However, since there are major aesthetic and linguistic differences between those two countries, calligraphy in Japan split into two major trends. One is called karayou (kara from Tang (唐), thus Tang China style) and another wayou (from wa (和) meaning Japan, thus Japanese style).

Wayou shodou (i.e. Japanese calligraphy style) includes scripts like kana, and later on avant garde calligraphy, which in return greatly influenced Chinise artist and western abstarct painters.

Shortly speaking, Chinese calligraphy is more rigid, rules-bound and precise. Japanese calligraphy is more abstract, allows for style blending etc. But one cannot say that Chinese calligraphy cannot be insane in its form. Look at works of Zhang Xu from Tang dynasty (also called crazy zhang) and his mad cursive style (kuang cao), or Huai Su.
Modern Chinese artists begin to apprciate modern approach to calligraphy as well, although it is not as popular as here in Japan.

When you watch videos of Chinese calligraphy, especially those teaching how to write in standard style (look up kai shu in youtube) you will realise how precise and mathematically accurate are the strokes. It does not mean that Japanese calligraphers are not studying proper technique. My teacher is an orthodox old classicist and my daily studies begin with rinsho (copying masterpieces). However, the approach is different. We seek vigour, flow, balance, rhythm and other details like brush tip work, etc, to understand given master style.
Writing lines exactly in the same manner is secondary to unimportant.

Also, oppose to how the Chinese studying, in Japan (well at least in my case) students are taught hanging arm technique from the start (the whole arm is suspended in the air) while in China the wrist rests on left hand's palm to steady it on. That is why they focus more on precision of the line.

Hanging arm technique is difficult (some say that calligrapher that writes with suspended arm is couragous) but it gives freedom of movement. One can engage the whole body to express what he or she feels during writing. Bokuseki (Zen sho) is written while standing. Simply because monks write with entire body movement (free energy flow).

Hope this throws a bit of light on the subject.

I am currently building a huge portal with information about calligraphy and I hope to be able to share the link end of this month. There is ton of information there and I am sure you can find it helpful if you would like to read in greater details about styles, history and so on. There will be (calligraphy related) forum as well.