I have been fortunate to study calligraphy with the talented artist Kazuaki Tanahashi. The picture above is me and Kaz. I am holding the brush but Kaz is too, holding the brush above my hand. He is guiding the brush, and my job is to let go and have him direct the brush. That way, I can feel the cadence of a master’s movement and pressure while drawing the different parts of a character. During this exercise, one thing that I immediately learned was that I was trying too hard. Lightness and easiness are as important as precision and focus.
Kaz held my brush many times during the weeklong retreat almost ten years ago, and I have never forgotten it. I asked him a question about how loose the brush should be held, and although he answered it verbally, I received a much more important instruction nonverbally. When we were holding the brush together, Kaz kept turning it; I believe it was to show me how light to hold it, how to adjust it, and how to be ready before initiating a brush stroke. For years, I thought about that experience every time I picked up a brush.
This framed enso is one of the circles that I drew in the retreat. It is drawn with one of Kaz’s brushes and it is amazing to see how the quality of the brush really affects the quality of the art. It was drawn with a large brush of distinguished character. I could see that it was an older brush that was very well made, and I could tell that it had been around for a long time and had been used a lot. The brush’s fine expression can be seen throughout the brush stroke.
For more information about Kaz and to learn how you can study with him, you can visit his website, https://www.brushmind.net/.
Zen Enso 