01
Two directions, one movement
At Shepherdman Academy, we approach brush practice from two directions: Trace and Release. The brush moves one way, but two things are going on at once.
Trace
You follow a clear, settled hand and copy it, stroke by stroke. The intention is that, in following a form already in order, you come into order yourself.
Release
The movement runs the other way as well: what is already inside you is understood to travel down the arm, through the brush, and out onto the paper. You are not making a picture. You are letting something leave.
Trace and Release are how we frame the practice at this Academy, not an official division within Onore-sho. They describe how the writing is approached here; they are not claims about what happens in the body. Nothing here is offered as medicine or therapy.
02
What a session is
A brush pen. A sheet of paper. A form to follow, and a word of your own to write.
No one is graded. Skill with a brush is not the point, and neither is coming away with a piece worth framing. The practice asks you to write like yourself, not to write correctly.
In English-speaking countries, handwriting in cursive has largely disappeared. Many people have never held a brush at all. A beginner's hand is exactly the right place to start.
Then you write. That part takes about forty minutes of a session that runs two hours. When you stop, you may notice that, for that whole time, you were not thinking about anything.
- No prior experience with a brush is needed.
- The standing session runs two hours, and you finish one sheet in it.
- Seats are limited, because the teacher watches each hand.
03
Why we begin with the hand
Tell someone not to think, and they think. That is the honest difficulty with sitting still: the instruction to stop thinking becomes another thought.
So we move the hand. The hand is given one simple task, and attention follows the hand rather than chasing itself. Nothing has to be silenced first.
Brush Praxis is not about making art. It is practice, done with a brush.
The reasoning behind this is set out with the rest of the Academy.
04
Where it is held
- Aomori, JapanEvery Saturday, 10:00–12:00Heart Spot (Corpo Fukui, Hamada-Toyoda 368), Aomori City. Held in Japanese. Visitors are welcome to sit in.
- Elsewhere in JapanTraveling sessions, and sessions held at your own venueDates are announced as they are set.
- Bay AreaNot yet scheduledWhen sessions open, they will be announced on Instagram.
To ask about a session, or to have one held at your venue, use the contact form.
Origin: adaptation. Brush Praxis is an adaptation of a Japanese brush practice (Onore-sho), presented here as a contemplative practice. It is not presented as an ancient rite. Onore-sho itself is taught across Japan under the Japan Onore-sho Dojo association, and the dojo behind this Academy is one of its dojos. The English name, Brush Praxis, is this Academy's own, not a translation issued by that association.