Tim Jensen confesses that the first time he saw Mitsuo Aida's calligraphy poems his immediate reaction was "I could do that!" Now Aida's greatest fan and translator of three volumes of his work into English, Jensen is not alone in his initial reaction. According to Aida's son Kazuhito, director of the Mitsuo Aida Museum in Ginza, this is the way most people react to his father's work the first time they see it.
"People look at it and think that anyone, even a child, could do the kind of calligraphy my father did, but if they try it for themselves they find they can't," he says. "It's based on a high level of technical ability."
Aida's work is deceptively simple, clear and direct. While most Japanese calligraphers focus on demonstrating their mastery of technique, often producing works in abbreviated, cursive styles that the average Japanese cannot read, Mitsuo Aida's aim was different. A calligrapher who was also a poet in his own right, he wanted people to understand what he was writing, and cultivated a naive style that was both easy to read and helped convey the meaning and emotion behind his poetry.