Calligraphy

Sachiyo Kaneko develops contemporary art from Japanese calligraphy, extending brushwork into live performance and collaboration. She began studying calligraphy at seven and graduated from Tsuda University. Her published chronology connects solo exhibitions in Japan, Mexico and Spain with performances involving music and dance. Among those records are a contemporary SHO performance at MUAC in Mexico City in 2018 and SHO making sound in Brighton in 2024. The multilingual website includes explanations of SHO, videos and a publication record, making it possible to follow both the marks on a surface and the action that produces them. For readers approaching calligraphy through contemporary art, this is a useful distinction: the finished work and the public act of writing offer different ways to understand rhythm, scale and gesture.

Yuuki Kobayashi, whose name appears as 小林勇輝 on his studio website, joins poetry, calligraphy and three-dimensional form in a practice he calls Zou Shisho. Born in Saga Prefecture in 1980, he began studying calligraphy as a child. His account traces a turning point to a poem whose inked form suggested wings, leading him to explore writing as shape as well as language. More recent installations reconstruct discarded paper and extend the brush-based practice into surrounding space. The exhibition record includes Crystal Verse presentations and a 2025 project in Seto. These records belong to the calligrapher and poet identified by this website; they should not be conflated with another artist using the same romanized name. Start with the relationship between his own poems and their physical arrangement.