Japanese Culture

I really enjoyed being able to do our own calligraphy. I found ut easier to write the alphabet and other kanji using the brush than with regular pencil. It's absolutely astounding how much work goes into the penmenship of Kanji. The video was a great example of that. When I did some research of Japanese Calligraphy, I found that there are three different types of handwriting. The first, the one on the very right above, is the most traditional and formal way of writing, the way that we were all practicing (kaisho). The one in the middles is called semi-cursive (gyosho). This is used when writers are in more of a hurry. It's more difficult to read. The third way of writing, the picture on the left, is called cursive (sosho). It uses the fewest amount of strokes an is fastest, but as you can tell, it's a lot more difficult to read that either of the first two. Do people really write in the sosho way? It seems so difficult to read!

Source: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2095.html