About Shokaisha
The Shokaisha School and calligraphic lineage
Shokaisha 書海社 Foundation is an esteemed Japanese calligraphy organisation and school founded in the tenth year of the Taisho period (1921) by founder Matsumoto Hōsui 松本芳翠 (1893-1971, pictured above), actively promoting and developing shodō calligraphy for over 100 years.
Hōsui Sensei was a member of the Japan Art Academy and believed that ‘sublime calligraphic beauty is attained when a refined and pure calligraphic style is trained and polished to perfection’ and that calligraphers should bring focus to ‘self-cultivation’ whilst practicing technique.
Hōsui Sensei’s teachers inlcuded Kusakabe Meikaku 日下部 鳴鶴 (1838-1922), originally a samurai of the Hikone domain, who dedicated himself to shodō at the end of the Edo period, and through his artistic work and educational impact he is known as the ‘father of modern Japanese calligraphy’. As a young person Matsumoto Hōsui left the small island of Hakatajima in the Seto Inland Sea, moving to Tokyo in 1907 and following a path that would enliven the calligraphy world in the capital. With the support of a handful of students he first published the Shokai 書海 calligraphy magazine in 1921, which continues to be published monthly (pictured below).
Shokai-sha translates as ‘sea of calligraphy – organisation’ and now has over 2000 students and 119 branches, mostly in Japan and particularly the Kanto area, with main office in Tokyo (next to Ueno’s metropolitan galleries and national museums). The school also has a strong presence in Taiwan where Hōsui Sensei’s grandson and third generation current Head of School Tanimura Shundō 谷村 雋堂 Sensei honed his skills. Shokaisha calligraphy teachers and students organise prominent exhibitions throughout the year in Japan, including a large annual exhibition in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (東京都美術館) which features graceful large scale works in several styles.
The school is known for its beautiful styles, and many calligraphers note that its elegant and refined regular kaisho 楷書 script is unparalleled throughout calligraphy history and across cultures. Having produced many hand brushed examples of calligraphy by Hōsui Sensei, and detailed books focussing on various styles including flowing kana 仮名 (native to Japan), reisho 隷書 (clerical style), gyōsho 行書 (semi-cursive), sōsho 草書 (fully cursive ‘grass’ style), and tensho 篆書 (seal script), Shokaisha is an advanced school where the highest level of shodō calligraphy can be learned.
Whilst the styles are breathtaking to view, the calligraphers of the school are committed to their practice and enjoy their studies, and their enthusiasm rubs off on everyone involved, creating a friendly and supportive atmosphere amongst the students and teachers. The classes in Japan are not only cultural and educational places where people gather to directly learn from the sensei, they allow calligraphers of all levels to meet and share their enthusiasm for shodō.
About the Pure Wind branch and Blair Thomson’s shodō path
Blair first travelled to Japan in 2002 and by chance met one of Toyama prefecture’s ‘three brushes’, calligrapher Wakabayashi Shujō, already in his eighties but full of creative energy. Soon enough Blair was ushered to his rural classroom with children and adults, and sitting at a low table kneeling in seiza, first learned the basics of shodō. Later, Blair exhibited with him several times and curated his work (in ‘Traces of Time’ exhibition, Ometesando, Tokyo, 2012). It wasn’t until after Wakabayashi Shujō’s passing, when in 2017 by chance when practicing sutra tracing at Seishoji temple, nestled between Tokyo skyscrapers, Blair was introduced to a new teacher by monk Mukan. This teacher was Tanimura Shundō Sensei, Hōsui Sensei’s grandson, and Blair asked Shundō Sensei if he could learn shodō from him and Shundō Sensei thoughtfully replied that it might be just too difficult for him to learn. However he didn’t give up and was allowed to join Shundō Sensei’s class in Kanda, Tokyo.
After regular study visits, Blair was given the calligraphy name 頓尊武禮 (Tonson Burei) by the beginning of 2020 and was encouraged to start the monthly Shokai coursework, and then brushed continuously through the pandemic, gradually climbing the Shokaisha ranks. In 2025 his work was accepted for the 73rd annual Shokaisha Exhibition 第73回 書海社展 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, situated inside Ueno Park, and was awarded a Special Selection prize (Tokusen 特選). The following year at the 74th annual Shokaisha Exhibition his next work, a 160 character rendition of Hakurakuten’s poem ‘The Temple’, won a Shūsaku Prize (秀作 Excellent Work) at the same museum (pictured above). Soon after, Shundō Sensei authorised Blair to teach the calligraphy styles of Shokaisha in Europe and was encouraged to set up a Shokaisha branch, choosing the name Pure Wind (清風 Seifū in Japanese). Seifū is part of a favourite nature inspired Zen phrase but also meaningfully reflects the affinity between calligraphers on the windy Atlantic coast connected through a wider ‘sea of calligraphy’ which links with calligraphers on Japan’s shores.
After graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 2002, Blair has had an award winning arts career concentrated around creating and exhibiting artworks as well as leading arts projects, and in 2008 he established the Drawing and Painting Studio to offer educational and wellbeing creative classes. He has led shodō calligraphy and Japanese arts workshops regularly since 2017, with classes delivered for organisations such as Shiseido Company, Vita Student and the University of Bristol. Blair’s Japanese arts and cultural projects have been generously funded several times by the GB Sasakawa Foundation between 2011 and 2026. Read more about Blair on his website.