Kuwaiti calligrapher creates an Arabic-Japanese art

(Interview) KUWAIT, Dec 26 (KUNA) -- The Kuwaiti calligrapher Shaimaa Al-Azmi has affirmed that calligraphy was a well-established art, expressing special attachment to Japanese calligraphy namely works with reed pen.
Al-Azmi, also a researcher in Islamic arts, said in an interview with KUNA that she studied Japanese calligraphy and its relation to Arabic calligraphy, adding that such knowledge of integration enabled her to be creative and produce works mingling between the two arts.
Using the brush and the pen, Al-Azmi said the Japanese calligraphy dated back to the fifth century AD, inspired from the Kanji language of Chinese characters, indicating that the kanji used to be exclusive for the high classes of the society.
There are various schools for the Japanese calligraphy, including the Arabized Japanese calligraphy, Shodo, she said, adding that she created a method to link up the Japanese letters that are conventionally not connected.
Japanese letters used by calligraphers range between 51 and 5,000, inspired from the hiragana and kanji, she said, explaining that the hiragana is the Japanese native language, while the kanji is a blend of Japanese and Chinese letters estimated at more than 5,000 characters.
Elaborating, she said the Japanese calligraphy shodo is divided into three categories; kaisho (of split letters, the favorite language for the official media), gyosho of semi connected letters (used in non-official writing and widely adopted by the educated elite) and sosho of connected letters.
Blending Arabic letters with Japanese ones enable the artist to make creative formative work, she said, adding that formative art can be integrated into the Japanese language for each Japanese letter is an independent abstract. (end) md.rk