Monday, December 8, 2008

Souun Takeda (Akio's Pick)






While I'm creating the sumi-e pieces this semester, my last post is on a calligrapher, Souun Takeda. The calligrapher was taught by his mother Soyo Takeda, who is also a calligrapher. He began his career as a calligrapher by creating his artwork on streets, in a manner similar to some musicians performing on the streets and in the subway stations. Up to this point, Takeda has collaborated with the professionals of different genres like the Noh actors and musicians, and was featured in various events such as the Fuji Rock Festival and the IAAF World Championship in Athletics. 


Like myself, Takeda's form of art is based on something that originated in the Eastern Asia and is aimed to be viewed and understood by people of the world, no matter what language they speak. The Chinese characters, the origin of all Japanese characters, have been around for over 3,000 years and were written and understood only by those who speak that particular language. The calligrapher is known as one of the forerunners who began the calligraphic style of deforming those characters in a way so they are more pictographic and emotional, and therefore could be understood by more people. 




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