Japanese Calligraphy in the Contemporary Times: the Value of a Calli-graphic Work in the Digital Era

As more and more fields face several challenges in contemporary times with the rise of artificial intelligence, Japanese calligraphy shodō is at an impasse. However, being a traditional art that managed to reinvent itself several times throughout history in order to remain relevant, shodō’s flexibility has the potential to evolve concomitantly with modern ways of creating art. This article will emphasize what constitutes the value of a calligraphic work in the modern day through case studies based on pop culture media and images generated by AI. Firstly, the research will indicate what makes a calligraphic work valuable by examining a scene from the manga Barakamon. Ultimately, these elements will be used in analysing three calligraphic works of the logogram 葉 (ha, “leaf”): two of them generated by Claude and ChatGPT and the third one created by the contemporary Romanian calligrapher Rodica Frențiu.