Kirk here introducing Souun Takeda (武田双雲), a calligrapher from the East Ward of Kumamoto City. The picture is of a piece he gave to the East (Higashi) Ward as a gift after the 2016 earthquake. The lighting at the time caused lots of reflections that I tried to cut out by making the image black and white and increasing the contrast – but with only limited success. The piece says “fly” (飛翔; hishou) and is display prominently in the Higashi Kuyakusho (東区役所; East Ward Office Building). I saw it there the other day when I was there to take care of some paper work
I know next to nothing about calligraphy but I like his style. He was on RKK recently and I was very impressed with him has a very friendly, likable person, which made me like his calligraphy that much more.
It you like calligraphy, you might want to check out his Twitter page – there are lots of images there to enjoy: https://twitter.com/souuntakeda
Souun has been written about in English:
Japanese Culture and a Joyful Heart: Souun’s First Encounter With Calligraphy https://matcha-jp.com/en/10401
Calligrapher Souun Takeda spreads healing power of the brush https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/02/19/arts/calligrapher-souun-takeda-spreads-healing-power-brush/
The Japanese Wikipedia page about him says that his mother and two younger brothers are all calligraphers:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/武田双雲
Here’s a recent RKK video about a “family” exhibition that was held recently. Unfortunately, it has closed already: