Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 4) - Uchiyama Kenichi
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Welcome to Part 4 of Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram, and this week we're keeping things super simple with Uchiyama Kenichi.
The Japanese way of giving names is to put the family name (Uchiyama) first, and then the given name (Kenichi).
That's the Japanese way, so I'll keep it that way too.
Also, I have a friend with exactly the same name, so I'll call my friend Kenichi Uchiyama and the calligrapher Uchiyama Kenichi. It keeps things simple.
Uchiyama is a designer from Yokohama, Japan.
He posts clean, minimalist Japanese handwriting on a separate handwriting Instagram account.
I'm not even sure if you can call it calligraphy, it's so gloriously simple. But he's got nice handwriting, and I love having it in my feed.
↓ こんにちは konnichiwa ("hello!")
Challenge time!
Can you read these next three?
Did you get it? These are the three Japanese "alphabets": ひらがな hiragana, カタカナ katakana, and 漢字 kanji. Each is written in its own alphabet, of course.
What I love most though is Uchiyama's series of Japanese placenames:
↓ 北海道 Hokkaido
↓ 名古屋市 Nagoya-shi (Nagoya city)
I love the balance and simplicity in Uchiyama’s writing. It's not big or ostentatious. It has a quiet confidence, I think.
Follow Uchiyama Kenichi here on his writing-only Instagram account at @u.handwriting.
Read more in this series:
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1.5 bonus!) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata
Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 3) - Isawo Murayama
First published 30th Mar 2018; updated 30th Nov 2021
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.