Japanese Calligraphy - Edo Period

Edo Period

Tokugawa Ieyasu centralized power in his shogunate between 1603 and 1615 and this marked the beginning of the Edo period which brought 250 years of relative stability to Japan, lasting until the second half of the 19th century. The period was marked by an emphasis on the values of the bushi (武士) and seclusion from overseas influences with the Sakoku (鎖國, lit. locked country, or chained country?) policy. Calligraphic studies were essentially limited to the study of karayō (唐様) style works, via Ming Dynasty China. Indigenous developments were contributed by Ingen and the Ōbaku sect of Zen buddhism, and the Daishi school of calligraphy. The latter focused on the study of the "eight principles of the character yong" (永字八法, eiji happō?), which go back to Wang Xizhi, and the and 72 types of hissei (lit. "brush energy") expounded by Wang Xizhi's teacher, the Lady Wei. The 1664 reprint of a copybook based on these principles in Kyoto contributed an important theoretical development. Calligraphers such as Hosoi Kotaku, who authored the five-volume Kanga Hyakudan in 1735, further advanced the karayō (唐様) style. Very characteristic for the early Edo period was an innovation by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) who had paper made to order and painted a backdrop of decorative patterns, butterflies or floral elements with which his calligraphy established a poetic correspondence. Together with Konoe Nobutada (1565–1614) and Shōkadō Shōjō (1584–1639) - the three Kan'ei Sanpitsu (寛永三筆) - he is considered one of the greatest calligraphers in the wayō (和様) style at the time, creating examples of "a uniquely Japanese calligraphy".

Around 1736 Yoshimune began relaxing Japan's isolation policy and Chinese cultural imports increased, in particular via the port of Nagasaki. Catalogues of imported copybooks testify to a broad appreciation of Chinese calligraphers among the Japanese literati who pursued the karayō style: "traditionalists" studied Wang Xizhi and Wen Zhengming, while "reformists" modeled their work on the soshō style of calligraphers such as Zhang Xu, Huai Su and Mi Fu. In terms of wayō, Konoe Iehiro contributed many fine kana works but generally speaking, wayō style was not as vigorously practised as karayō at that time. Nevertheless some examples have been preserved by scholars of kokugaku (國學, National studies?), or poets and painters such as Kaga no Chiyo, Yosa Buson or Sakai Hoitsu.