Shingai Tanaka

Who was Shingai Tanaka?

Shingai Tanaka was a Japanese calligrapher who studied under Master Goshin Yasui, becoming one of the country's best shodō artists. He is the author of the book Sho, Le calligraphes de kyoto, ed. Cénton, 2008.

In the 1980s Tanaka founded the Kyoto Calligraphers Association to promote Japanese calligraphy. He was president of Sho international, president of the Kyoto Artists Calligraphy Association, and special professor at Kyoto Saga Art University.

From 1987 he lived between France and Japan, teaching shodō to students and artists in Lyon, Milan and Kyoto.

From 1998 until his death, he gave lectures at the Japanese Center in Lyon and in Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

In 1998 he was invited by Radio France to do a special concert in the music festival '98 Presence'. In this experimental concert Tanaka improvised 24 works live on stage, responding to the images and inspirations of the music played by pianist Thierry Ravassard and composed by 20 famous French composers such as Gilbert Amy and Pascal Dusapant. Each composer chose one Haiku from the 24 poems of the four seasons, and composed according to the image of the poem. This concert gained a good reputation, and three concerts were performed again at the National Supreme Academy of Music in Lyon. Muzzik European Channel decided to make a film of this music project for world-wide release, and beginning production from 2001 to 2002 through four seasons in Japan.