1. Introduction

Kin-bun is the most ancient of Chinese scripts. Used on bronze vessels, weapons and musical instruments during the Shang and Zhous dynasties(1500-700 BC), Kin-bun characters were inscribed on the inside of these artifacts with various curves and patterns as external decoration.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties (600-900AD) Japanese envoys returning from China introduced five Chinese scripts to Japan: Ten-sho, Rei-sho, So-sho, Gyo-sho and Kai-sho. These five scripts formed the basis ofthe Kana syllabary (still in use today). In this period the art and craft of calligraphy was practised, in China and Japan, by renowned calligraphers, artists and craftsmen seeking to perfect their art in each of these scripts.

While an interest in, and an academic knowledge of, the¡Æold¡Çforms of writing was maintained by practising calligraphers, concrete examples of the Kinbun script lay hidden from sight for centuries. It was not until the Song dynasty (1000-1100AD) that a few examples of Kin-bun were discovered with the excavation of some ancient bronzes. Again, centuries were to pass until further examples were discovered when systematic, full scale archeological investigations were begun in the early twentieth century (late Qing dynasty). These investigations revealed numerous artifacts inscribed with this mostancient script. Advances in the study of Ancient Monumental Inscriptions over the next fifty years assisted the decoding and translation of the Kin-bun script. Kin-bun script, in use some three thousand five hundred years ago was finally, interpreted a mere fifty or sixty years ago.

The existence of this most ancient script presented me, a late twentieth century calligrapher, with inspiration, a challenge and a quest to bring Kin-bun to world-wide public attention. The very obscurity and antiquity of Kin-bun was both an inspiration and a challenge: how to display this ancient script outside museums and in a manner and form accessible to the world arena. Another challenge, for me as a practising calligrapher, was how to faithfully and authentically reproduce, with my soft, pliable calligraphers brush and ink, those ancient characters inscribed on hard bronze? The quest I undertook was to master the authentic writing style of Kin-bun and sought knowledge, training and expertise at Beijing Central Institute of Fine Arts in 1989. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have studied under Professor Kang Yin, the foremost authority of these ancient characters. To observe Professor Kang Yin writing Kin-bun was the most enthralling highlightof my studies. His strokes of the brush appeared like moving (Qi-gong), a level of skill I practise to emulate.

While my studies were unfortunately curtailed by the Tiananmen Square Massacre I have continued to study the skill of Professor Kang Yin. Now, six years later, I am able to realise my dream and present the ancient calligraphic art of Kin-bun on beautifully hand-dyed paper, to the world.

At Kamloops, Canada
July 27 '95
Atsuko Osa

translated by Katsuhiko Osa, Joan Gotthard

entrance of Kokyu Museum, Beijing, Chaina

bronze vessels in the show-case, Kokyu Museum

with Mr. & Mrs. Kang

with Professor Kang Yin