My name is YUMI HIRAO
Officially name is Yumi van der Loo- Hirao. I was born and raised in Tokyo and moved to Glimmen, the Netherlands in 2013. I teach SHODO ( Japanese-calligraphy) in the classroom attached to my home. At the age of 9, I joined the Mizukukikai and started learning SHODO under the guidance of Mr. Kochiku-Minamizawa and Mrs. kouchiku-minamisawa. “Mizukuki” has the meaning of plant stems but also the meaning of beautiful handwritten characters . I took over the name of “Mizukukikai” with the permission of my master
Shodo organisation
I have a diploma of a SHIHAN (9th dan) certified by the NIHON SHUJI GAKKAI. It is the highest rank that can be obtained at the association. In addition, I have obtained a license of instructor certified by the association. NIHON SHUJI GAKKAI is located in Tokyo, founded in 1924. We send a own bestworks, which is completed by monthly lessons, to Japan for examination. You can get a Japanese calligraphy qualification in the Netherlands. For more information, please see School.
find out yourself and enjoy
My teachers wanted us to learn SHODO to find out ourselves and enjoy SHODO. They emphasised SHO is not for competition. We learned SHODO very deep without competing with someone else. So I competed with myself with a lot of advice from my teachers.
Of course we do some competition in the book. But I also hope that all of my students enjoy the moment of learning. The result will appear automatically by enjoying SHO and your own growth. If I say ” enjoy “, some people think about “fun”, but actually it is not only fun to learn SHODO. You may find out it will take time to discover what your difficulties and possibilities. But when you over the mountain of the problems, it will make you happy. That’s what I experienced myself, and until now my “result” is… very fine! If you have interest in SHODO, please try and enjoy.
Yumi