An account of the evolution of this art from a simple beginning into its present intricacies By Henry P. Bowie RIOR to the coming of Chinese scholars to Japan in the sixth century, the Japanese used no written characters. Since then, for writing Japanese, they have employed Chinese characters in several ways. First, for their sound values without reference to their significations; subsequently, for their sense values or meanings; and, finally, for constructing a phonetic syllabary or Japanese shorthand called Kana. The first and third of these uses are not understood by the Chinese, while the second use of their characters is common to both them and the Jap anese. Four thousand years ago, in the reign of the Chinese Emperor Kotei, his secretary, So Ketsu, made written characters by imitating the shapes of objects, and they are known to this day as "tadpole letters," because they were written upon bamboo with a pointed flat stick dipped in varnish, and the pressure and pull on the initial stroke resembled the head and tail of a wiggler. This was before brushes and sumi (ink) were employed. Subsequent emperors preferring the forms of dragons, tigers or fishes, all letters were fashioned more or less to recall such shapes. Every Chinese letter stands for a thought or a thing-an idea or an object either suggested or outlined; hence, such letters are said to be ideographic or pictorial. Each A specimen of Oye Riu, a Japanese method of writing, which is now out of date. Sho. The word ten means “bent down" like an old man, and the general shape of the letters was that of the rounded path of a book worm or the track eaten out of a leaf by a worm. Ten Sho is popularly called Seal writing-because seals are engraved in that style. In the Shin dynasty-two thousand years ago, Ri Shi, a minister of state, invented another Ten Sho, which was called Sho Ten. It differed slightly from its prototype. About this time Tei-baku introduced the writing called Rei Sho. Rei means an assistant, and the name was in allusion The bold letters on the left are Rei Sho, by Iwaya Roku, in his poem upon the view from the imperial palace. The finer characters on the right represent Dai Ten Sho, by Watnabe Sao, in an interesting treatise on filial piety. The diminutive writing to the left of the Dai Ten Sho is the same treatise in Kai Sho. Chinese character is a single or a compound picture and the prevalent idea among Occidental scholars that the radical of a character has a function separate from and unconnected in sense with the phonetic portion of that same character is a mistake. The so-called phonetic is as pictorial as the radical with which it combines and it pictorially contributes its share of meaning to the compound character. In every instance, it will be found to yield to patient analysis its structural significance. The theory that it serves only to designate the sound of the compound character is contradicted by the fact that very many such characters do not take the sound of their phonetics, which term is a misnomer. During the Shu dyansty-twenty-four hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor Sen No, his secretary, Shichu, first invented the writing known as Dai Ter The text on the left is a poem in praise of rivers, mountains, pine trees, bamboo groves, music and sake," written in Sho Ten Sho, by the illustrious seal engraver of Kyoto, Soki Tetsu Jo. At the upper righthand side of the plate is shown the most ancient kind of Chinese writing, called Kobun. The first character pictures a cocoon, and symbolizes "white"; the character below is the representation of a tiger, with his stripes to the right; the other two figures stand for "star." The tiny piece of writing penned beneath the Kobun is by the head bosan of the Nichi Pen Sect, and refers to the marvelous law of the Lotus. to the serviceability of this invention. and its advantages over Ten Sho. Tei-baku had been a prisoner for years. Fond of writing, he devoted himself to that art-and it was in the course of his long studies in confinement that he invented this new style. The emperor was so pleased with it that he liberated Tei-baku and made him an officer of his palace. Rei Sho came at once into vogue and was used generally as a substitute for Ten Sho and has ever since remained popular. Thereafter, various improvements or changes were made in the writing and forming of Chinese characters and, in turn, Shin Sho and Kai-Sho-generally called "the standard"-Gyo Sho and So Sho-were invented. Sotoba, a great authority, says of these three styles of writing, the first is standing, the second walks, and the last is running-alluding to the comparative time taken in writing them. The last and most difficult of these, So Sho, was invented by Cho Shin seventeen hundred years ago. It is said he passed all his time in this absorbing study. Sitting upon his verandah, which was built over a lake, he washed his ink brush so often in the waters that the lake finally became a black pool. From this time on, all Sho Ka (professional writers of Chinese characters) were called Rin chi Ka-pond longers. Ogishi was the most skillful of all the So Sho writers of his time. He copied in this style thirty-seven times the volumes of Buddhist doctrine called Ko tei Kyo, and attained such excellence that a voice addressed him from Heaven saying his writing had won him the praise of the gods. During the To dynasty, some twelve hundred years since, Cho Kyaku was esteemed the greatest of the So Sho writers and was called the So Sho sage. He would even write So Sho with his bushy head for a brush, which he dipped into a pail of sumi (ink). He introduced many improvements in this wonderful and difficult way of writing, and one of his secrets was his use of the graceful and curved lines of a famous female sword dancer, whose evolutions with that instrument suggested to him various sweeps and curves which he gave to his letters. |