Calligraphy is more than just writing letters. It is an art and a discipline, Northwestern visiting Prof. Shozo Sato said.

Sato, who teaches calligraphy classes at NU, spoke to about 75 students, faculty and Evanston residents about the art of calligraphy on Saturday at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum.

“Black-ink painting and calligraphy both deal with great strength and energy. (Both are) required to hold the brush and execute lines,” Sato said.

Participants attending the event, sponsored by the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, learned about the evolution and styles of calligraphy.

Sato is a professor emeritus of art and design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he founded a Japanese cultural center.

In 2003 he received the First Cultural Achievement Award from the Japan America Society of Chicago. In the spring of 2004, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan. He is a master of the highest order in Japanese tea ceremony, flower arrangement and black-ink painting.

Sato has also received international recognition for his incorporation of Kabuki style theater with already well-known plays, such as in Kabuki Lady Macbeth, which he recently directed for Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. For this he was awarded the Critic’s Choice Award for “Best Director” at the Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival.

Sato said calligraphy was a Zen art through which one could reach tranquility. Successful execution requires calm concentration and meditation.

“When you devote yourself to that simple task, you do not think of any evil thoughts, you are pure,” Sato said.

“Being Asian American, it’s nice to see these traditions … being brought into American education,” said Kelly Valignota, a Weinberg sophomore.

Much of Sato’s talk was spent discussing the evolution of Chinese symbols. He first showed symbols from 5,000 years ago, then held up characters from a millennium later. He ended with modern-day characters.

“We can see the change … from a pictorial system of notation, (it is) changing and trying to (become) simple (which is) what we see today, ” Sato said.

He also showed how a single character with a certain meaning was combined with another character of a different meaning to create a new character with its own meaning.

“It seemed to be that everything is connected … it did not derive from anything that was an isolated event,” said Craig Yu, a first-year Communication graduate student.

Sato also demonstrated different styles of calligraphy to illustrate the differences between the old style and the new style, a stricter form and a more relaxed form.

“He’s one of the most interesting people we get here,” said Cecilia Germaine, Weinberg’s director of administrative services.

Sato will have a lecture on Japanese gardens at NU on May 14 and a lecture on haiku, Japanese poetry, on May 21.

Reach Sameera Kumar at [email protected].