My first book "Bon Voyage Japan" consists of a series of travel posters associated with "goshuin" type calligraphy. Goshuin are traditionally made in temples and are composed of ideograms and red stamps.
Although I had initially thought of using a Japanese font close to handwriting, I ultimately chose to do all of these calligraphies myself. Although I know how to speak, read and write Japanese, creating these ideograms was not an easy task. Indeed, it is important to know the order in which the strokes are written but also to know how to gauge the pressure of the brush.
I don't claim to be a shodô master but I think I was able to highlight my own style. This is what is important in my opinion. I deliberately played with certain characters to give them an original shape.
This is the case for example of "Hiroshima" below, where the lower part of "Shima" 島 is deliberately exaggerated to make it more dynamic. 
Or the “Sha” 者 of “Geisha” which wraps around the lower part.
Likewise, the "to" 湯 of "Sento" goes unusually low on its lower part, but I like the final result.
In another blog post I will discuss red stamps and the meaning behind them.
In the meantime, if you would like to discover more calligraphy and see how it is associated with my Japanese posters, you can check out my book "Bon Voyage Japan" here.
