Shodo Performance Koshien

June 24, 2015 11:10 PM

Shodo Performance Koshien is an annual competition, held in Ehime, of massive-scale Japanese calligraphy performed live by teams of high school students. (The videos with two-digit numbers in their titles are actual performances.) This year's will be held in Shikokuchuo-shi, Ehime, on July 26. Interested in trying it yourself, but don't feel like breaking the bank on an enormous horsehair brush? Try using a modified mop!
posted by DoctorFedora (5 comments total)

This is fantastic.

Does anyone know what they're shouting before and after?
posted by Happy Dave at 3:38 AM on June 25, 2015

Thank you so much! Lovely. Do you have any more strange Japanese links/stuff/sources - I love this!
posted by mathiu at 3:43 AM on June 25, 2015

Dave, I don't know which video you're watching, but odds are it's probably just set phrases like "thank you very much" afterwards and a weird untranslatable phrase before that basically means "please give me/us/this your favorable consideration" and is used for everything from meeting people for the first time to beginning a sports match to offering a bribe.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:50 AM on June 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is it named after the Koshien Stadium where the Koshien high school baseball tournaments are held?
posted by Pallas Athena at 10:22 AM on June 25, 2015

Yeah. For whatever reason the name Koshien has such cultural relevance that pretty much any national high school competition is referred to as the Koshien of ________. Performance calligraphy, photography, whatever. It's apparently genericized to the point where the name "Shodo Performance Koshien" is a registered trademark despite containing a famous proper noun.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:46 PM on June 25, 2015