Kazuaki Tanahashi, born in Japan in 1933 and active in the United States since 1977, is an artist, writer, and peace and environmental worker. As a painter and calligrapher, he has been pioneering the genres of one-stroke painting, multi solo exhibitions of his brushwork worldwide and has taught numerous workshops, including at seven international calligraphy conferences.
"I studied with Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. (We were a bunch of boys; no girls were practicing in the class—perhaps the only class of Aikido in Japan, that means in the world, that time. My brother Shigeyoshi and I were in the first postwar group of learners as my father had been previously a disciple of him.)
After one of us was thrown down by Morihei and rolled on the wooden floor, he would kneel and keep him down with a little finger, making no effort whatsoever. Sometimes he sat on his knees and let all of us try to push him down, he was so relaxed with a smile and it was impossible to move him an inch however hard we tried. I had no idea how this short man with a white beard could do such a miraculous thing, and there was no clue for me to get the secret of the art."
No comments:
Post a Comment