Rie Takeda shares how she finds inspiration from her students in creating an informative book on mastering the art of shodo.
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Teaching shodo creates an intimate connection with people
Nick: So you dedicate the book to your grandmother, and all your students. So would you like to talk about that?
Rie: My grandma introduced me to this art of shodo, and I started learning shodo with her. That's why I thought that I need to dedicate that to her, but also all my students who shared their individual experience, and sometimes very intimate sort of hours. Especially in the one-to-one private sessions.
And I appreciate that the way I teach shodo was maybe part of their healing process. Because without those experiences, I wouldn't have developed this method effectively.
Nick: Last time we spoke, you did mention how you learnt so much from your students in the process. And it was both a source of ikigai, oshiegai, manabigai -- all these values of learning and value of teaching. And as you mentioned, this intimate connection to people you're helping, some who have some challenges.
I think some of your students have some disabilities or challenges, and you use calligraphy as a way of healing. So that's interesting. So we're privileged to be able to teach because we often learn so much from the people we share our knowledge with.
And I guess Calligraphy is very unique, because it touches on all these things we talked about last time: being present, being calm, being mindful, but almost at the same time, mindless, like no mind.