The Collapse And Reconstruction "

Japanese modern calligraphy started in the first half of 20th century. As a unique phenomenon among different art forms over the world, modern calligraphy is influential in Japan and international art field as well. In its flourishing time, which is 1940-1970, it attracted artists all over the world. And Chinese modern calligraphic practice has always looked on it as an important reference system.This doctoral dissertation focues on the theories and methods of the main schools of Japanese modern calligraphy, which were active from post-war time to 1970s. The representative artists are Ueda Sokyu(1899-1968),Oosawa Gakyu(1890-1953),Teshima Yuke(i1901-1987),Hidai Nankoku(1912-1999),Uno Sesson(1912-1995),Inoue Yuichi(1916-1985),Morita Shiryu(1912-1998).The dissertation tries to analyze their works, probing into their creative process and the methods they employed, searching for the Ideology behind their artistic practice.Due to the lack of necessary language skills, there are few original studies in mainland China. In the filed of Japanese modern calligraphy, research works focusing on connoisseurship or in the form of introduction are much more common. When we say"original studies", we mean those academic works, which treats modern calligraphy as a contemporary art form, study the modern calligrapher and their works, and closely examines the involving skills, materials and the creative process.The Japanese scholars have done a lot of work in this field, but this dissertation tries to put forward some new ideas through the eyes of a Chinese researcher. Above all, it examines systematically the value of modern calligraphy's existence and development, analyzing how Japanese modern calligraphy accepted western influence and kept their own traits at the same time. The paper chooses some typical works as the object of the study, comparing the calligraphers'methods with those of the Chinese, hoping to draw new conclusions.