Spring 2023
JAPN 2100, Japanese Calligraphy
Course Details
Section 01, Seminar, Class No. 44445
Term: Spring 2023
Number of units: 3 units
Meeting Time: Tue-Thu, 2:30PM-3:45PM
Room: UH-263
Instructor: Mayumi Ajioka
Highlights
If you want to join a fun activity using Japanese,
If you are interested in Japanese culture and spirit,
If you want to combine your artistic talent and Japanese skills,
JAPN 2100 will be your best option for next semester!
Course Description
This course will provide a hands-on tutorial of basic brush strokes and techniques. The students will learn about the history of calligraphy in Japan, the components and structures of kanji characters, the types of calligraphy style, and how to hold and handle the brush. The first half of the semester deals with the basic style kanji characters, called kaisho (block) style in Japanese; the second half of the semester advances to the semi-cursive style, called gyoosho in Japanese. The students will practice hiragana in calligraphy at the advanced stage as well as kanji characters. Toward the end of the semester, the students will create a fancy, artistic item by using calligraphy as their final project, such as a T-shirt with a kanji, painting with a kanji, and a curved product with a kanji on it.
• No prerequisites for this course
• Calligraphy kits supplied by the Multimedia Language Center. All you need is ink and paper.
• Taught in English. Your knowledge of Japanese and kanji, however, will help you a lot.
• Bilingual (English & Japanese) Textbook used. See below.
Textbook
Ikeda, M. & Miura, S. (2017). Japanese Calligraphy – The basics: A useful bilingual guide for beginning to learn SHODO, Kindle Edition. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates. ($6.90 on Amazon.com, as of 11/18/2022)
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact:
Mayumi Ajioka
Department of World Languages and Literatures
California State University, San Bernardino
Email: mayumi.ajioka@csusb.edu