Each brush stroke in Japanese calligraphy must be perfectly executed since the artist never goes back to touch up any character. Each movement of the fude, or “brush,” is ideally performed with the full force of one's mind and body, as if one's very life depended upon the successful completion of each action. It is this spirit of decisiveness, of unhesitatingly throwing 100% of oneself into the moment's action that perhaps most clearly connects budo and the art of Japanese calligraphy.
In shodo all mistakes are final, just as in the martial arts a mistake ultimately, or at least symbolically, results in the budoka's death. For this reason, many beginners in calligraphy lack the spiritual strength to paint the character decisively. Each stroke mustbe delivered like the slash of the bushi's sword, yet the brush must be held in a relaxed manner as well as manipulated without a loss of controlled calmness. Through rigorous training, a kind of seishin tanren (“spiritual forging”), the student's mental condition is altered, and this change in consciousness is carried into the individual's daily life as well. For the budoka, the added strength and composure that’s cultivated by Japanese calligraphy allows him or her to more instantly respond to an opponent's attack without hesitation. The shujigami, or “calligraphy paper,” which is so sensitive that the ink will bleed through it in seconds, is one's opponent and the brush one's sword. Every kanji, “Chinese character,” must be painted with a perfect asymmetrical balance, which like a person's balance in jujutsu, must be developed until it is maintained on a subconscious level. In fact, I have found my prior training in budo to be invaluable for sensing balance in shodo. And over the years, my study of calligraphy has enabled me to more precisely see and correct a lack of balance in the bodies of my martial arts students.
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