The Interplay of Copying and Creation: Masters of Modern Calligraphy

Ueda Sōkyū

1899–1968

Born in what is now Miki, Hyogo. He became a student of Hidai Tenrai in 1929, founded the Shodō Geijutsusha with Kaneko Ōtei and others in 1933, and founded the Keiseikai in 1940. His Ai (Love), shown at the 1951 Nitten, stirred debate, and he left the Nitten in 1955. A pioneer of avant-garde calligraphy, he taught Morita Shiryū and Inoue Yūichi, among others.

• Copy of the Inscription on the Hot Spring, folding album
• Untitled, 1954, 54 × 76.5 cm

The Inscription on the Hot Spring 温泉銘, by the Tang emperor Taizong, is a classic of calligraphy: a historic stele carved in running script that carries on the spirit of Wang Xizhi’s brush.

Uno Sesson

1912–1995

Born in what is now Shin’onsen, Hyogo. He began studying with Ueda Sōkyū in 1932 and helped found the Keiseikai in 1940. He left the Nitten in 1956, became professor emeritus at Daito Bunka University, and received the Mainichi Art Award in 1984. He is regarded as the one who gave the avant-garde calligraphy begun by his teacher its theoretical completion.

• Copy of the Inscription on the Guo Ji Zi Bai Basin, folding album
• Drawings of the Character Yū “幽”のデッサン, 1955, folding album

The Inscription on the Guo Ji Zi Bai Basin 虢季子白盤銘 is a celebrated bronze inscription cast into a large basin of the late Western Zhou dynasty (9th–8th century BCE). Uno’s copy works from a rubbing of it.

Morita Shiryū

1912–1998

Born in Toyooka, Hyogo; studied with Ueda Sōkyū. In 1952 he formed the Bokujinkai and led the journal Bokubi. Through the journal and the exhibitions he organized abroad, he did much to carry sho beyond Japan.

• Copy of the Kenchū Kokushin Jō, 1984, hanging scroll
• Mai 舞, 1969, 140 × 70 cm

The Kenchū Kokushin Jō 建中告身帖 is a letter of appointment that the Tang calligrapher Yan Zhenqing wrote in regular script in his own hand in 780, at 72; it is said to be his only surviving original in that script. In 1984, when Morita corrected calligraphy sent to him from around Japan through Sōryū Tsūshin, he enclosed single-character copies of it on hanshi paper as models, each stamped “Kenchū Kokushin Jō” at upper left and sealed. The scroll mounts these sheets.

Inoue Yūichi

1916–1985

Born in Shitaya, Tokyo. From 1935 he taught in elementary and junior high schools for more than 41 years, until retirement. He studied with Ueda Sōkyū from 1941 to 1951 and joined in forming the Bokujinkai in 1952. He represented Japan at the 1957 São Paulo Biennial and showed at documenta in Kassel in 1959. In 1986, 62 of his major works entered the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.

• Copy of the Yan Family Temple Stele, 1983, each 63.7 × 36.2 cm

The Yan Family Temple Stele 顔氏家廟碑 was composed and written at 72 by Yan Zhenqing, revered as a loyal Tang statesman and a sage of calligraphy, for the family temple of his father, Yan Weizhen. It is counted the masterpiece of his regular script. Late in life, in 1983–84, Inoue copied all 2,800 characters at full size, work in which copying itself became creation.