Calligraphy Demonstration During Japanese New Year’s Celebration

''Kakizome'' (, literally "first writing") is a Japanese term for the first

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

written at the beginning of a year, traditionally on January 2. Other terms include ''kissho'' (), ''shihitsu'' () and ''hatsusuzuri'' (). Traditionally, ''kakizome'' was performed using ink rubbed with the first water drawn from the well on New Year's Day. Seated facing a favourable direction, people would write Chinese poetry containing auspicious words and phrases such as long life, spring, or perennial youth. These poems were then often burned. In modern times, people often write out auspicious

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

rather than poems. School pupils up to senior high school are assigned ''kakizome'' as their winter holiday homework. Each year on January 5, several thousand calligraphers gather at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts con ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

's Chiyoda-ku for a ''kakizome'' event that is widely covered by media. The kakizome paper is usually burned on January 14 in the Sagicho festival. If the burning paper flies high, it is said that the person will be able to write a more fair hand.

References

*Gail Benjamin
''Japanese Lessons: A Year in a Japanese School Through the Eyes of an American Anthropologist and Her Children''
NYU Press 1998, {{ISBN, 978-0-8147-1334-1, S.120
''New Year's In Japan''
- City News Urayasu, 2006-1-1, no. 105

External links

''Washi: Japanese Papermaking Workshop''
- Teacher's Guide des Robert C. Williams Museum (Georgia Tech), p. 22

- news notice on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

''The Newsletter of the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix''
- Issue January/February 2009 Japanese calligraphy New Year in Japan January observances Winter traditions