Seito Tamura, Kutani brush fine calligrapher with superb technique

Only two craftsmen work on this product.
The Beauty of Design with Fluid Characters

Kutani brush fine writing is a technique for writing waka poems and other classical Japanese literature with an extremely fine brush.
It is rare even from a global perspective, and there are only two people who have inherited this technique in the Kutani area: father and daughter, Mr. Keisei and Ms. Seito Tamura. For this interview, we visited Ms. Seito Tamura's studio to hear her story. Let's take a look at the characteristics and charm of the fine brush strokes through Seito Tamura's works.

This palm-sized incense burner was created by Ms. Seito. On the side of the censer is a waka poem about spring from the Kokin Wakashu (Anthology of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry). The waka poems are written in Manyogana, and each character is only a few millimeters in size. The small letters are written one after another, from top to bottom, straight and without distortion. Lines and lines are neatly spelled out. Each line contains one poem.

The number of letters in each line must be different, but the letters at the beginning and end of each line are exactly the same height. He adjusts the size of the letters by feel as he writes to make sure they are aligned. It is no wonder that the fine brush strokes are called superbly crafted.

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The Beginning of the “Brushstroke Hosoji” Technique

Kutani ware was at its height during the Meiji period (1868-1912). In order to distinguish Kutani ware from others and make it unique, letters were written on the inside of vessels, which were never painted, and this was the beginning of Kutani brush fine writing. Oda Seizan, the first generation of Kutani Yaki, pursued the technique of fine writing to make it more detailed and more beautiful as a technique that only he could do, and developed a technique called “brush fine writing”. After that, Keisei Tamura became the third generation and Seito Tamura the fourth to carry on the family tradition of this technique.

Seito's Western-style cup. You can see Manyogana written on the cup.
It is an art that can be seen when the cup is tilted. It is chic.

Manyogana written in a flowing style. I think the most beautiful typeface is Manyogana,” says Seito.

She does not hold the cup in place with anything special, but simply holds it in her hand and runs her brush across it. The waka poems are spelled out dexterously and straightly inside the small sake cup.

Did you learn calligraphy or something so that you could write beautiful letters? I asked Ms. Seito, to which she gave a surprising answer. She replied, “Calligraphy and fine brush writing are completely different things.

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Calligraphy and brush fine writing are very different.

In calligraphy, the characters are written on vessels using a glaze that contains pigments such as manganese. This glaze is quite tricky. The glaze is very sticky, and it is very difficult to write “hane” and “harai,” or curved lines, smoothly, so it is not possible to write letters in the same way as calligraphy.
But when I look at the work, the letters seem to be written smoothly....
The answer is simple: they are written in such a way that they “look” that way. Only when he writes in a unique way and order can the characters become fluent and be expressed on a vessel.

In brush fine writing, one must learn to write in a unique way and learn how to handle the sticky glaze. It took a mind-boggling amount of training to be able to write Manyogana that flowed smoothly on the vessels.

Ms. Seito also mastered overglaze painting (the first generation worked on fine brush strokes on vessels that had been painted by overglaze painting artisans), and she painted the vessels herself to create her works of art. Let's take a look at her works, paying attention to the balance between the painting and the Manyogana and how they are charmed.

This is an incense container with a design of a sea slug. Cherry blossoms and polka dots are drawn, and a waka poem is spelled out in Manyogana on one of the polka dots. The polka dots, which tend to pop, are accented with graceful Manyogana, which makes the nudibranch look somehow elegant.

This is an incense burner on which the Kokin Wakashu (Anthology of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry) is written. It would have been intimidating to have so many letters lined up in a row, but the Manyogana is just as it should be. Even though the characters are too small to read, the soft typeface of Manyogana gives the work a gentle atmosphere.

Unlike modern texts, which directly convey the meaning of the poem, the waka poems are difficult to understand without modern translations, which is why they have a certain elegance to them.

It is good because you can't read it.
But it would be fun if you could read it.

Manyogana can be enjoyed as a design, but it becomes even more interesting when you know the meaning of the waka poem written on it.

Let's take a look at the Sea Urchin Kago again. Here it is,
“The light of Hisakata no hikari no tokoroki vernal day, Shizukashinashi hana no chirurumu.”
and other spring waka poems are written here. It is interesting to think about the meaning of the waka poem, which makes the work even more attractive.

The same polka dots are used on this sake cup to represent the surface of the water in autumn.

The waka poem written on it is
Chihayafuru Kamidai mo kikasuru Tatsuta gawa karakurenai ni mizu kukuru to.
This waka poem describes a beautiful scene of autumn when the Tatsuta River is dyed bright red with autumn leaves. And the scene is designed on the bowl.

Often, customers order their favorite design with a different waka poem, that is, they want their favorite waka poem to be written on it.

Also, since waka poems are sung about various scenes, they are able to select waka poems according to the purpose of the gift. For example, if the gift is for a person born in spring, you can select a waka poem that sings about spring.

This one is for a celebration of longevity.
The waka poem about longevity and prosperity is written along with a picture of a treasure ship.
On the right, in large letters, is written,Counting the sand on the beach at Watatsumi, I will make your 1,000 years of life last forever.
This is a famous waka poem about longevity.

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A New Way to Attract

Ms. Seito says that the key to her skill in writing fine brush strokes on the surface of the vessels is basically to write very small characters evenly and evenly within the limited frame of the vessels.

On the other hand, she also felt that this limited the design and lacked movement. Then, Ms. Seito decided to take up the challenge of creating this design.

Waka poems are interlaced like lines. This is an unprecedented use of fine brush strokes. Fans of fine brush strokes also commented, “I've never seen anything like this before! and “I've never seen anything like this before!

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English-language products are also available.

This goupin has a verse from the English nursery rhyme “Mother Goose” written on it.
Following the flowing calligraphy of Manyogana, one would expect English characters to be written in a writing style, but instead, they are written in a block style. The endless possibilities of the fine brush strokes are apparent in this work.

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I chose this as my life's work.
Kutani Brush Fine Script

While inheriting her skills as a fine brush calligrapher, Ms. Seito also continues to take on the challenge of creating new works of art. It was at the age of 24 that Ms. Hoshito decided to follow in the footsteps of her father, the third generation Keisei Tamura. Until then, she had no intention of following in his footsteps. She went to college and then worked in sales in Tokyo. She found the work enjoyable, but on the other hand, she kept asking herself what a lifetime of work meant to her and what she could leave behind with her work. She also dreamed of starting her own business someday, and as she studied development, she vaguely realized that her family business was also doing some kind of development.

The realization was something else. Recall, when she was a student studying abroad. When I was abroad, people would ask me, 'Where are you from? What kind of family do you come from? I was often asked about myself and my roots. When I told them that my family was in the Kutani ware business and my father was a fine calligrapher, and I showed them pictures of his work, they responded, 'Wow! I have been familiar with fine brush strokes since I was born. But I reviewed the kind of brush fine writing that makes people from other countries, where language and culture are different, think “wow”. The more I went outside, the more I saw the good things about the family business,” says Seito.

When I started my training and was in my 20s, I was always troubled. I couldn't write fine characters well, and I lost sight of the meaning of putting letters in a vessel, so I was feeling backward. I was once told, “I would have bought your work if it didn't have the letters,” even though I had managed to write fine characters in my own way. At that time, I was even more depressed. But on the other hand, it also made me realize that the overlay and the letters were not in harmony,” he says.
It wasn't the beginning of the world of Seito's fine brush strokes, she says.
It was like 'muscle training. I just do it day in and day out. I just do it day in and day out. The more you keep doing it and writing, the more you acquire the skill. As I continued to do it over and over again, I think I got a sense of the harmony between the overglaze painting and the characters, how to give the characters a sense of gravity, and how to hold the characters in place,” she said.

As a fine calligrapher and a representative of the kiln, I have my problems, but I no longer have the backward feeling toward fine writing that I had when I was in my 20s,” says Seito.
(laugh).” Ms. Seito also says, ‘When I die, that is the peak of my career as a fine calligrapher,’ and she continues to hone her skills day by day.

Works by her father and mentor, Keisei Tamura