What is Shodo?

Shodo is Japanese calligraphy, where an ink-dipped brush is used to create Chinese kanji and Japanese kana characters. It is important not only to draw the characters well, but to hold the brush correctly, shade the ink well and balance the characters on the paper.
There are various styles of Shodo such as the Square Style 'Kaisho 'and the Cursive Style 'Sosho ', and many types of paper can be used. Japanese students begin learning shodo in elementary school and nowadays people use shodo to write New Years' Greeting cards and in other situations in their daily lives.