Leaving His Mark on an Ancient Art: Arabic Calligrapher Honda Kōichi

The paper used for Arabic calligraphy has a slick surface.

The calligrapher first creates a draft for the design with the position of the characters and other elements. It can take months to complete a single work of calligraphy.

The writing implements Honda uses, whittled from bamboo or reed to suit his purposes.

A view of Honda at work, making use of a variety of writing implements to draw lines of all sizes.

A line of calligraphy by Honda with Çelebi’s corrections below in red. The number of dots inside the characters indicates the shape of the curves.

A work by Honda titled “Blue Desert.”

Honda’s “Red Desert.”

A work by Honda titled “Blue Ark.”