bryant ALEXANDER:
CLASS OF 1999
Vermont High SchoolClass of 1999
Los angeles, CA
bryant's Story
The centralisation of power by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543 â 1616), after his victory during the battle of Sekigahara, known in Japan as the Sekigahara no Tatakai, in 1600, closed the door of Japan to the outside world for a period of some 250 years. Till now, the two major styles of Japanese calligraphy, i.e. wayÅ shodÅ and karayÅ shodÅ, evolved in perfect harmony for 7 centuries.
However, the cultural and political isolation that was enforced by the law introduced by the Tokugawa Shogunate, changed the situation dramatically. One of the most famous and revolutionary inventions, considering the mind-set up of people of medieval Japan, was the Terakoya. Terakoya was a school where children of Japanese commoners could learn how to read and write, though there were also other subjects, such as abacus counting, geography, and even arts, including tea ceremony. Together with rapid growth of the merchant class during Edo period, Terakoya became very popular. It was Terakoya school concept, which the compulsory educational system of Meji period (1868 â 1912) was based on.
In terms of Japanese calligraphy, a new style of wayÅ shodÅ was developed in Terakoya school. It is known as oie-ryÅ« ( ânoble family styleâ), a calligraphy style of the Edo period, heavily based on the semi-cursive script. Oie-ryÅ« was based on the Japanese calligraphy ...Expand for more
style shÅren-in initiated by the 6th son of the Emperor Fushimi (1265 â 1317), Royal Prince SÅnenhÅ (1298 â 1356). The Terakoya school method of teaching Japanese calligraphy has survived till today. Traditionally, calligraphy is to be studied by copying masterpieces, however, a teacher often writes an example for students. While writing it, he or she explains the particulars of a given masterpiece. Such example is known in Japan as tehon, and usually is written by means of red ink.
Not at all like focuses of prevalent training that taught chiefly aptitudes required in ordinary life, terakoya offered a more elevated amount of instruction. The educational program started with calligraphy courses, as understudies imitated their teacher illustrations, the supposed tehon . Once the nuts and bolts of composing were comprehended, the understudies propelled to reading material known as Årai-mono, which dated again to the Heian period and were predominantly utilized for samurai training. These copybooks were accumulated by Japanese men of letters and were composed in kanji consolidated with kana. They held helpful data about the everyday lives of individuals, as family unit statutes, discussion abilities and good values, and also chronicled and geological substance, which demonstrated a more extensive extent of social life to the people.
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