{"id":571,"date":"2011-11-10T22:23:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/welcome.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp\/modules\/xpressme\/?p=571"},"modified":"2018-04-09T21:19:01","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T12:19:01","slug":"street-calligraphy-performance-by-calligraphy-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.visitmatsumoto.com\/en\/culture-art\/street-calligraphy-performance-by-calligraphy-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"“Street Calligraphy Performance” by Calligraphy Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On Nov 3, the girls of Arigasaki High School calligraphy club did a “calligraphy performance” on Honmachi Street vehicle-free promenade. It was one of the events held in the annual Matsumoto Citizen’s Festival.
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\"\"Calligraphy performance has been popular in Japan for a few years. Last year, a movie “Calligraphy Girls” was made and sent to the Festival de Cannes market.<\/p>\n

It was exiting and dynamic to see the girls draw big kanji characters on the road with their face and clothes spotted by Chinese ink. I heard the writing brush is so heavy (about 15kg) that they train their bodies.
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Photo by Chiemi Matsuda<\/figcaption><\/figure>A few years ago, Arigasaki High School’s calligraphy club had only one member so it was on the verge of closing. But, it is now a very popular club activity because of the calligraphy performance. Last year, they were selected and appeared on a special TV program featuring a calligraphy performance contest and performed in front of Matsumoto Castle.
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Photo by Chiemi Matsuda<\/figcaption><\/figure>I also saw a samurai warrior costume parade in the festival (you can see more photos in the last year’s blog<\/a>).
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