"書道ガールズ" in Shikokutyuou city

“書道ガールズ”, the title of a Japanese movie, it means “girls learning Shodo”, will be released on May 15 in 2010. This movie is based on a true success story in my hometown, Shikokutyuou city. My hometown is located in the middle of Shikoku island, south west of Japan. Paper manufacturing is the town’s major industry, but now it has been declining from the severe international competition. Young people went to city, and the town became stagnant. The story is set in a high school in the town, my old high school. A new teacher comes to the school. He gets to work on 書道部, Shodo club, Japanese Calligraphy club. All players are women. They all have good skill, but no confidence and no hope. One day, the captain of Shodo girls saw the teacher writing, it was the new style of Shodo while dancing to music. They start to practice this dancing Shodo. Before long, they get to enjoy Shodo from the heart and have confidence. They become to try to do this performance for citizens. They decide to take part in the national contest. Please see the movie for more information.
http://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/shodo-girls/
Shodo is the art of drawing characters with a brush and India ink called sumi. When I was a student, a lot of girls were learning about Shodo. Of course, I did. At that time it was not special. We ought to have proud of Shodo as a Japanese culture. In these days, Shodo seems very cool skill. I’m amazed to see how different it is, as taking things in a different direction. I think that it is important to improve the image, good looking and hot and smart image, through some media.
In addition, 紫舟, hot Shodo artist who is famous for writing the title of “龍馬伝”, is from Shikokutyuou city. Such good news brings life to us. All citizens with the mayor in the lead help to promote this movie. I enjoy this movement like an event. Now, the Shodo teacher moved to a university as a Shodo professor. He seems to be very nice person, besides handsome. I heard that some Shodo girls went to his university. This is also a real story.