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I was recently in Tokyo visiting my parents who are living there for the time being, and I just had to write about an art experience we don't get much of (or at least I don't!) in the States: Japanese calligraphy as fine art, and story telling.

My mom's Kanji tutor has an exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, and when we went to go see it, we had the opportunity to have the artist (her teacher) escort us around to his work and explain them to us. As my mom will tell you (and did tell me on many occasions!) perfecting Kanji characters is nothing short of painstakingly difficult. Each tiny stroke is no accident, each character must be finished with the perfect flare, curl, or movement.

I'll admit that as I walked around the exhibit, a lot of the artwork (many of them long scrolls with HUNDREDS of tiny characters) started to look the same. Which is why it was so wonderful to have her teacher there to help us go beyond the aesthetic appreciation to understanding the story.

The above picture (as I understand it) is a somewhat artistic representation of a few of the Kanji characters and the stories behind them. At the right, the character – or drawing – is of the evil Emperor. Next to that and more towards the middle are two of the other rulers, riding in a chariot to try and overthrow the evil Emperor. The large portrayal in the middle is of another ruler who's supposed to be fishing inside the walls of the evil Emperor's kingdom. He's hoping to “catch” the evil ruler. The black spot to the left of that – with people drawn inside it = represent the people who have died at the hands of the Emperor.

At the far right is a mountain, with a hawk flying above. The rest of the description of that particular section is a little fuzzy to me! Suffice it to say these are the stories the characters of the Japanese language are based on – beautiful, interesting, yet SO complicated!

Part of me wishes English had the history and artistic expression that is found in the characters of Japanese writing. But part of me is glad I didn't have to learn the upwards of 2000 representations necessary to read Japanese!