"Friend Returns Home" by Li Bai

A self-professed amateur, Miura Koho only began to pursue calligraphy in earnest late in his life, after retiring from a corporate career. In choosing to brush a poem by the famous, highly revered Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (701—762), Miura expresses his deep appreciation for classical Chinese culture.

Yet, in Miura’s brushwork there are very subtle, perhaps inadvertent divergences from Chinese calligraphy. The thick, uniform application of ink with firm, neat strokes favors centered-tip brushwork, quite different from the expressive, slanted-tip brushwork popular in contemporary China. In several characters, the stroke order and composition reflect practices developed in Japan.

In these and other ways, this unassuming work, brushed by a novice, demonstrates the profound reworking of Chinese culture in Japan. As with Buddhism and Confucianism, and more recently, Western modernity, Japan’s own pervasive, indigenous culture has reshaped and transformed such "imported" cultures. However, as expressed in the poem, one cannot but feel a yearning for a renewed camaraderie between China and Japan—one transgressing the bloody conflicts of the 20th century in which friends "lie down in empty hills."