I posted a couple of items on calligraphy recently which attracted some mild interest. Reading through the SmartGo proofs of GoGoD's "Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei" (John Mifsud has outdone even Aleksey Grigoryevich Stakhanov and has it ready for publication as soon as I give the all-clear), I came across again the reference to Tamura Yasuhisa practising his calligraphy in preparation for the day he would become Honinbo Shusai. Coincidentally I also came across an example of his work new to me, and thought it would be good to post it here so that others can (I hope) admire it.

As is often the case, the sentiment is nothing special. It says "moving clouds" 行雲, which is probably to be taken as an abbreviation of 行雲流水, or "moving clouds and flowing water" (which in turn expresses the idea of "be of good cheer"). Despite the cliche, though, it's a good example of the vigour shown by the "little giant".

The signature is "Shusai" and the seals below that say "Honinbo XXI" and "Shusai".

It was enough to inspire me to buy a calligraphy set.

I've been learning Chinese for about half a year now, primarily focusing on speaking, but I'm discovering that writing words with a brush and ink is a wonderful supplement to learning vocabulary (and painting). Thanks for sharing!

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Patience, grasshopper.

Photos of your progress, please? Like reviews.

I'm not even ddk - still playing against the computer.

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Patience, grasshopper.

May I suggest you look into a "buddhaboard"? It's nothing like the ink, but it's a huge amount of fun to play with.