Calligraphy and Seal Cutting Exhibition Held in Japan

To enhance cultural exchanges between China and Japan and familiarize the Japanese public with traditional Chinese culture, the CPAFFC, the Japanese Hokushi Seal Cutting Society and the Ishikawa Prefecture Japan-China Friendship Association (JCFA) jointly staged a calligraphy and seal cutting exhibition of Chinese and Japanese surname characters in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, March 18-22. Surnames are important carriers of a nation’s cultural heritage. The 110 works on display were created by Chinese and Japanese calligraphers and engravers and reflected the long history and rich culture of family names from an artistic perspective. During the exhibition, the Chinese and Japanese organizers co-hosted a lecture on “the Origin of Surnames”.

With rich cultural tradition, Ishikawa Prefecture has preserved a number of traditional Japanese handicrafts, such as Kutani porcelain, Wajima lacquer ware, Kaga silk and gold foil manufacture. The prefectural capital, Kanazawa, has a large number of people who are interested in Chinese culture. The exhibition attracted 1,500 calligraphy lovers who came from various parts of Ishikawa as well as its neighboring prefectures of Fukui, Toyama and Kyoto. Sakea Mikuni, Director General of the Ishikawa Government Tourism Bureau, Shuichi Ishizaka, Director General of the Ishikawa Prefecture JCFA, Nanen Kitamuro, President of the Hokushi Seal Cutting Society (HSCS), and Masami Yamamoto, Chief of the Bureau of Project of the Hokkoku Shimbun cut the ribbon to open the exhibition. Major media including the Hokkoku Shimbun carried a series of reports on the exhibition. In an interview, HSCS President Nanen Kitamuro said she hoped the exhibition would enable the Japanese people to learn about the adoption of Chinese characters in Japanese family names and provide a cultural perspective for them to look at their names that have become a part of their lives since the day of birth to arouse their respect for Chinese characters.

The lecture was jointly given by Zhang Xinbin, Director of the Institute of History and Archaeology of Henan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences and Hiroshi Morioka, a Japanese specialist on family names. Zhang provided the audience with an overview of Chinese surnames while Morioka spoke on the origin of Japanese names. The simple and witty language they used made the academic talk very interesting for the capacity audience in the 500-seat hall.

Many Japanese visitors said after viewing the exhibition that they were truly impressed by the profound Chinese culture and were amazed that, today, society still used for names the Chinese characters created 3,000 years before. They voiced the hope to visit China―the home of Chinese characters and an ancient civilization―to experience the glorious Chinese culture.

This is the 17th exhibition the CPAFFC have organized in cooperation with the Hokushi Seal Cutting Society of Japan since 1994.