Yoshinken
     
   
         
    Chinese Art in Yoshinken    

Yoshinken
 

I am fortunate in having the privilege to train with all the wonderful people in the Stockholm Yoshinken group.

Thanks to Sensei Marshall McDonagh we are members with skills from several different Martial Arts. Yoshinken is an art that cultivates and encourages existing knowledge from our members in Karate found in Kyokushinkai, Goju-ryu, and Shotokan), including as well Ju-jutsu, Aikido, Tai-chi, Pa Kua, Judo, Kendo, and boxing with Taikiken as the basic foundation for lifetime study and development.

One of our members being Anders Öfverström who has a background in Budo/Wushu also as an artist in traditional Chinese art and calligraphy.
The more I learn from Anders and his art the more I understand that art is an important part of genuine Budo/Wushu. This gives us an understanding and an explanation why some great Budoka/Wushu Sensei/Masters are skilled artists also in painting, calligraphy or poetry. With Anders talents this helps us to get another dimension into the internal system of the martial arts.

 


 

To do the presentation of Anders I asked him to write a short history about his Budo/ Wushu experiences and let a well-known art professor and a good friend of Anders from China do the presentation of Anders as an artist.

Anders is one of the Kenpoka in the Stockholm Yoshinkengroup that makes me aware that I am training in the worlds most interesting Budogroup.

Åke Wall
Yoshinken Stockholm








 

Anders by Huangshan mountain
  Anders explains

I Started to train wushu for Sifu Louis Linn for 4 years and after that Shotokan karate for Sensei Yoshi Yukawa. At this time I also took term courses in Changquan (long fist) Nanquan (south fist), Taiji and sunfeather wich was all form training. The Chairman of honor at Master Louise Lins wushu institute was an eighty year old calligrapher whos name was Dr.Tien Lung for whom I later studied calligraphy, though he’s courses was more of a lecture in chinese patiance and in mastering the brush. In 1990 I enrolled at the Zhejiang academy of fine arts where I studied flower and bird painting under the instruction of varios masters, the first year I also studied sword forms for a teacher from Hangzou wushu academy. 1993 I had my graduation exhebition at the acadamy before I went home. In 2001 I was invited to two collective exhebitions one in pujiang and one at Shanghai museum of fine arts. 2005 I had a one man exhebition at the yellow crane pagodas art institute in Wuhan. 2007 I shall have a one man exhebition in Nanchangs institute of fine arts where I shall exhebit 100 paintings.

In addition to Shotokan and Wushu I allso trained Kyukushinkai karate at Oyama karate kai where I came in contact with Yoshinken which I now practise.



 
 

 

Anders and his art

Text by Jiang Baolin 2005 08 16 Beijing (prof.Jiang Baolin is a master of Chinese painting and is seen as one of three most famous Chinese artist now living)

Anders born in 1970 sweden.
In 1991 he enrolled at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art, Department of Chinese Painting, Class of Flowers and Birds. Under the instruction of Lu Kongfeng, Xu Jiachang, He Jialin and Tian Yuan and other teachers. He studied the Chinese freehand brushwork systematically. At that time he preliminary understood the main spirit and national characters of Chinese paintings and made remarkable progress in both calligraphy and freehand brushwork. Anders is my friend and has been my frequent visitor at home.

His sincerelity, honesty and sense of humour left a deep impression on me. Especially his growing feelings about China and his diligent desire of progress touched me deeply. We talked about everything, about life, about China, about the future and about the interesting happenings in life. All these had been a great opportunity for him and me as well to add our knowledge and open our minds. That's why, as he said himself, "The great inspiration, instruction and encouragement which I've got and which formed me as a person and as an artist has been the time I've spent together with Mr Jiang Baolin". His job in Sweden has nothing to do with Chinese painting but he has never given up the great love and pursue for Chinese art. He usually sent me some pictures about his paintings to ask for instructions.

2001 he was invited to take part in the "International Chinese Ink paintings Exhibition" at Shanghai museum of fine art. There are two patterns in Anders brush and ink paintings. One is the inherit of Chinese freehand brushwork, with intension of Chinese culture history and national characters. It's an extension of great expressionism from the beginning of twenty centuries. The other one is to use the Chinese brush and ink to express the Western abstract ideal, creating his own style which is the result of using Chinese art technique in Western motive. Anders had made appraisable progress in both patterns. Anders is nature-talented and highly understanding. He paints very extraordinary, with a spiritual brush, free and good manner, spontaneously, good taste,good accomplishment, delicious from vigorous,
naivety from simplicity. All these are fine and unusual moral characters in Chinese painting, especially for a person with another culture background.