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Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the phenomenon of high school calligraphy competitions in early 21st-century Japan, with particular focus on its two paradoxical dimensions of collaboration (shift from individual creation to team work) and competition.

Paper long abstract:

During the early years of the 21st century, Japanese calligraphy enjoyed a revival through the craze for high school calligraphy performance competitions, known as shodô kôshien. Popularity reached its peak in 2010 with the film Shodô girls !!, which enjoyed international acclaim.

In these competitions, loosely inspired by the high school baseball equivalent (from which they drew the name kôshien), teams vie against one another to produce a calligraphic work in a limited time. The result is then assessed by a jury, with the subsequent attribution of prizes.

A short introduction will first inscribe these competitions into the broader perspective of calligraphy performances.

Our first point of interest are the new conditions established by calligraphy competitions. How are teams created ? How is the attribution of prizes decided ?

We will then put the notion of collaborative creation into historical perspective : collaboration was indeed common practice in pre-Meiji calligraphy, but was then superseded by a Western conception of artistic creation as a solitary process. Did calligraphy competitions put collaboration back on the map, or did they give rise to a whole new concept ?

In a last part, we will broaden the scope of our study to the theoretical questions raised by calligraphy : are prize-winning high-school calligraphies works of art ? And if so, who is the author ? What place is there for individual artistic development within the team framework ?

Our conclusion will interrogate the evolution of this movement : is the popularity of shodô kôshien sustainable in the long run ? What happens to calligraphy performers once they leave high-school ?