Student Testimonials

Anne

Student from Belgium since 2019

Yoshiko Yoshida is an expressive Shodo artist. With modest tools: ink, brush and paper, she makes works of art.

When Yoshiko Yoshida uses her brush she is like a dancer in space. Her work is a performance on paper. Movements are those of a ballet dancer and can be very dramatic with powerful gestures or tiny tender strokes like whispers.

By using the space even small works look monumental. In her art she shows her individuality through breath, flow, balance, rhythm. The expressive character of her lines are not only touching the paper but also our heart.

Evelyne

Student from France since 2017

Yoshiko is a contemporary calligrapher. Her daily practice of the discipline, the classical study of ancient texts, is the source of her artistic expression.

She frees herself from established forms to create her own artistic language. Yoshiko connects calligraphy, poetry, and painting, creating a personal pictoriality. She transmits her creative jubilation, the vigor, and the momentum of her brush. Faithful to her emotions, she moves away from meaning to give way to her immediate feelings in the act of writing, painting.

In Yoshiko's calligraphy, a natural spontaneity coexists with the mastery of gesture and brush. Abstraction is firmly part of her language. Ballet dance inspires her and she finds similarities in the dancer and the calligrapher: the breath, the rhythm, the balance. Bodily expression, the body moving in space, the instantaneous gesture, the transience of form.

Veroniki

Student from Greece since 2022

It is my honor to be able to say a few words about my sensei, Yoshiko Yoshida. She is an exceptional artist in every sense of the word. Her calligraphy has at once the lightness and strength of a Tai chi fighter, as when she is holding the brush it is really like she is dancing on a bamboo branch.

I feel blessed that she accepted me as her student and I see her as a role model for my inner development. Yoshiko Yoshida is a rare, brilliant, and kind person, full of inspiration, who definitely has a lot to offer to those close to her in the gentle art of calligraphy and beyond. May she continues to inspire us all.

Bruno

Student from France since 2018

Learning calligraphy (shodō, 書道 ) with Yoshida Yoshiko is a very rich experience. An exploration of Chinese and Japanese classics as well as the way to express our individuality.

While practicing shodō, our body is fully involved through breathing, the rhythm of gestures, and movements of the arms. Our mind has to be both concentrated and fluid. Yoshiko, our sensei, transmits her mastery of the practice in a very invigorating way, with energy and enthusiasm.

Therefore, she allows us to let our own feelings come up. Shodō, like every dō, invites us to walk in a progressive way of art and fulfillment. Yoshiko helps us to move forward, step by step, at every lesson.