－ SHOHA HIDAI－
In 1948
Yasuko Yamamasu, who was served as an assistant to Shokin Hidai at Shogakuin in Kamakura, married to Nankoku Hidai on the recommendation of Shokin. Yasuko got the artist name “Shoha”, and opened up an original way of the art of calligraphy(Sho Art) in the middle of new rising activities in calligraphy after the cruel war.
Nankoku and Shoha were well-known as a happily-married couple. They were both active in front rank of calligraphers and served as judges at Mainichi Shodo-ten (Mainichi Calligraphy Exhibition). Shoha played the active part in calligraphic world remarkably, as the representative of women calligraphers in Japan. Nankoku worked in the sphere of the avant-garde calligraphy and Shoha in the sphere of the mixed Kanji- Kana calligraphy. Their representations differed each other, but they had the common ardor and interest in calligraphy.
I wish to write a letter or character（字） of my own that never belongs to anyone.
I wish to write a refined letter or character; namely something lies somewhere in my mind,
In my work it is felt, it seems to be apparently nothing, and people are never tired of watching it.
I wish to write a letter or character, full of simple joy and warmth.
I wish to write an honest letter or character. It calls forgotten childhood to mind.
It bears sorrow or suffering, and even anguish or anger.
Yasuko
Born in Yokohama, in 1943.
Grown up in the family of earnest and pious Christians becoming Kanzo Uchimura’s pupils. Learned Kana calligraphy of the Heian era under Shokin, and pursued Sho Art for writing the mixed Kanji-Kana by spoken language, free verse, tanka, translated poems etc. Married to Nankoku Hidai and supported Nankoku’s activities of avant-garde calligraphy. Shoha’s works display her profound inner life on the basis of Christianity. Made every effort to hold “Hidai Tenrai Seitan Hyakunen-ten” (Exhibition on the Centennial of the Birth of Tenrai Hidai,) on May 23 in 1972. At the opening ceremony Shoha collapsed. On May 25, Shoha died, aged 58.
