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Origin of hiragana

All hiragana evolved from kanji. They were originally 'shorthand' ways to write kanji. (Similar shorthand ways of writing kanji are sometimes still used today when writing kanji quickly.)

For example, the kanji character 安 evolved into the hiragana あ . If you look closely, you can see how あ is a highly simplified form of 安, with fewer, more fluidly-flowing strokes. Both 安 and あ are basically the same character. All hiragana evolved from kanji in this way.

One of my favorite kanji-to-hiragana pairs is 機 to き. Look how a 16-stroke kanji has been simplified into a 4-stroke hiragana.

Here is a link to a chart of each hiragana and the kanji it evolved from.


The following video shows each original kanji, an intermediary form, and the final hiragana. (The bottom of the frames show each hiragana and the corresponding kanji it evolved from, although some are printed in yellow and are hard to read.)

 
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Japanese calligraphy (Shodō) (しょどう) (書道)

Shodō is an art form that takes a long time to master. (Believe me, I tried, and it turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected.) The tricky part to using a Japanese writing brush (fude) (ふで) (筆) is controlling the tip of the brush as it flips around. Watch how masterfully the writer controls the tip of the brush, making it point to the left or right, as he writes several kanji.


This Shodō master has a much more flowing style. (Boy, I wish I could write calligraphy like that.)

 
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Here is a nice video about different types of shodō brushes. The video opens with a shot of a handful of different brushes. The lady talks about 'strong hair' vs. 'soft hair' brushes and makes a suggestion as to which type of brush a beginner should use.

 
Here is a video on making calligraphy brushes. One thing I did not know is that some brushes are made of layers of different types of hair. Watch from 5:20 as the craftsman puts two different kinds of hair together and 'folds' them together to make the combined hair for a brush.

 
Here is something I never expected to see in a video. Literally shaving a baby's head, then taking the very fine hair and making a baby-hair writing brush (fude) (ふで) (筆).

 
Calligraphy brushes (fude) (ふで) (筆) that are quite large

Here is a video of several people in Switzerland putting on a display of using a large fude. (Omigosh, I can barely use a regular size fude, so these folks are really out of my league.)


In the following video, a Chinese master calligrapher demonstates the writing of large kanji on a large banner. Take a look at the finished banner at 2:49

 
Preparing ink for Shodō

For many people, the preferred way of preparing ink for Shodō is to grind a stick of solid ink into powder while mixing it with water, creating a liquid ink called bokujū (ぼくじゅう) (墨汁).

An ink stick is called sumi (すみ) (墨) which is a solid stick of ink, shown at 0:25

The すみ stick is ground onto a stone called a suzuri (すずり) (硯), which is shown at 0:32

The resulting product is liquid bokujū.

Watch the demonstration from 3:46 of grinding a すみ stick onto a すずり stone. First step is putting a little bit of water, shown at 3:54.

 
Want to practice Japanese calligraphy (shodō) (しょどう) (書道) but don't want to spend time grinding ink sticks? Not to worry, you can by ink in a bottle. Take a look from 0:37 as the lady pours store-bought-ink-in-a-bottle onto her stone. The stone is called a suzuri (すずり) (硯). I call store-bought ink in a bottle "bokujū juice" (but I have yet to have anyone laugh at my clever joke…)

 
Quite frankly, practicing Shodō by grinding sooty ink sticks, or pouring liquid bokujū ink into small dishes can be very messy. (Tipping over a bottle of bokujū ink can be disastrous. Can you imagine splashing a puddle of black ink on tatami?) Fortunately, 20th century technology has solved the problem; a brush pen with an ink chamber inside, just like a ball-point pen. (Brush pens can even be reloaded with more ink.)

Watch from 7:58 as the calligrapher uses a brush pen. The trick to good Shodō is keeping the tip from flipping around, to the left side or side while writing. (Japanese calligraphy is rarely done with dragging the tip of the brush directly behind the direction of the line being written.) Putting that last hook on the bottom of the 字 Chinese character, in an upward motion, is particularly difficult -- I cannot do it with a fude. Watch how well this calligrapher keeps the tip correctly on the left side or right side while writing.

 
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I really like this video because it gives a close-up view of the tip of a Shodō brush pen in action. In addition, this video shows someone using yellow ink, which looks magnificant. (We can buy Shodō brush pens in many different colors.)

The brand name of this brush pen is Pentel (ぺんてる) and I highly recommend it for beginners of Shodō.

 
I had a pen/brush like this in black that literally lasted over 20 years without drying out. (Obviously it wasn't a water-based ink!) I finally threw it out a year or so ago when it got mostly used up. I need to look for another one the next time I'm in Japan. I used it occasionally to sign birthday cards and the like.
 
Watch as a calligrapher writes a 100-stroke kanji. Amazing.

 
Here is a video of a Japanese writing brush festival (ふで まつり) (筆祭り). Video of the festival continues at 14:21.

Take a look at the large number of writing brushes (fude) (ふで) (筆) for sale at 0:20.

Look at the HUGE 筆 at 1:35. (I think they are used for writing on very large posters.) The brush strands are made from horse tails.

Watch a person writing with a very fine writing brush at 13:06.

More footage of the ふで festival from 14:14.

Here is something I had never seen before. A 'funeral and cremation' for old 筆 from 15:41.

 
Here is a Shodō (しょどう) (書道) competition for New Year's held in Tokyo. Take a look at 0:08 at the thousands of students taking part in this competition.

By the way, the girl at 0:32 (and also in the screen you first see) is wearing a white head band with the red circle (symbolizing the Japanese flag) and the kanji 必勝 (hisshou) (ひっしょう) which means "certain victory". Wearing such a headband is common among Japanese people participating in a competition .

 
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Here is a good look at a "Certain Victory" headband (hissho hachimaki) (ひっしょ はちまき) (必勝鉢巻き)

certain victory (hissho) (ひっしょ) (必勝)

headband (hachimaki) (はちまき) (鉢巻き)

 
Here is a lesson for Beginning Japanese Calligraphy. The first lesson is writing dots (which look like rain drops). The lesson then moves to writing horizontal lines (which is basically connecting two 'raindrop' dots with a slightly thinner line). Horizontal lines are written this way: Start with a wider line, thin out the width of the line for the middle, then make the end of line wider. Like the student says, it is harder than it looks.

Look at the dots at 4:03.

Next, look at how dots are connected to make a horizontal line at 7:16.

 
Bonsai is the art of growing plants (usually trees) in small plants. (The name bonsai (ぼんさい) (盆栽) means 'tray planting'.) Keeping the plant roots contained in a small pot keeps the size of the plant quite small. Take a look from 2:04 how the roots are severely restricted by the small 'pot' it is planted in. (The lady is actually cutting off some of the roots.)

Take a look at the magnificent bonsai tree at 2:52 that the lady has cultivated (which is also the image shown below).

 
Sumi-e (すみえ) (墨絵) is a style of painting that uses a Japanese writing brush. (It literally means to paint with sumi ink.)

Watch as the artist draws bamboo with a fude. Drawing bamboo is one of the first paintings that Sumi-e artists learn because it is relatively simple to draw. Notice how the ink is more diluted with water than regular sumi ink, which allows the artist to paint in various shades of gray.

 
Classical Chinese Landscape. (I really like this style of Sumi-e painting.) Look at the finished products at 1:57:40 and 2:24:15.

 
Hokusai is one of the greatest Japanese artists of all time. Take a look at a video containing his picture The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Other great examples of artwork are also featured, for example, take a look at the amazing folding screen Fifty-four Scenes From the Tale of Genji at 9:00.

 
Every Japanese person has a name stamp called a hanko (はんこ) (判子) which they use instead of putting their signature on an important document. It is a carved from a piece of wood (or something similar) and is stamped onto a piece of paper. Watch from 2:02 as the man stamps his name with a hanko onto a piece of paper. (The man's name is Jordan and his hanko has his name in katakana, ジョーダン. If you look at what his hanko has stamped on the piece of paper, you can see it stamped ジョーダン inside a circle.) I think it''s safe to assume his ジョーダン hanko is custom-made.

The video also talks about the different classes of hanko, each of which is used for a different 'level of legality' depending on what kind of legal document you are signing. The video explains the different classes of hanko. Also, look from 9:44 at the large selection of ready-made hanko you can buy off the rack at a store.

 
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According to Shogo, the Japanese man who practices using Japanese swords, there are seven types of hanko (はんこ) (判子) in Japan. This video also contains a short history of hanko.


 
Japanese tongue-twisters (hayakuchi kotoba) (はやくち ことば) (早口言葉) are challenging but fun. The best-known はやくち ことば is:

There are two chickens in the garden.
Niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru.
にわ に は にわ にわとり が いる。
庭には二羽鶏がいる。

(Also, at the end of the video, it gives you a link where you can download free hiragana, katakana, and kanji eBooks.)

 
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Watch five more Japanese tongue-twisters (hayakuchi kotoba) (はやくち ことば) (早口言葉). Have some fun watching as Risa-sensei really struggles at 2:06. She proclaims loudly at 2:35, "I can't say it!" (Ienai!) (いえない！) (言えない！).

 
The Japanese elementary-school educational system has it set up where Japanese students must learn specific kanji in specific grades. (It would be like the American educational system legislating the learning of certain spelling words in each year of school, for example, legislating that students learn to spell the word 'book' in second grade. Here are the 80 kanji that students are required to learn in first grade. (This is also a good chance for total beginners of Japanese to have a look at some kanji for beginners, and also practice reading and hearing hiragana.)

 
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