Japanese calligraphy class in Tokyo - Small group activity

Try your hand at the art of Japanese calligraphy and learn about its history from a professional calligrapher!

Japanese calligraphy or "shodo" in Japanese, is derived from Chinese calligraphy. It shares several principles, but over the centuries has developed unique elements. In Japanese, each character carries a meaning and a story that's revealed by the way it's drawn. 

This activity will give you the chance to learn how written Japanese and calligraphy work. 

You'll start by learning the basics of calligraphy: how to use a brush and an inkstone. 
After this introduction, you'll produce your first calligraphy work by learning to write your first name in Japanese, then other characters from the three Japanese writing systems: the syllabary hiragana and katakana, and the Chinese kanji characters.

During the class, a master calligrapher will be on hand to guide you and tell you more about the history of written Japanese, its origin, its types of writing, as well as the different characters and how they evolved. 

At the end of the class, you'll produce a final calligraphy piece on coloured paper that you can keep as a souvenir.