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青雲大志 (Lofty Ambition) in regular script (kaisho), Japanese calligraphy model sheet

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Lofty Ambition

seiun taishi4 characters30 strokes

青雲大志 (seiun taishi) means having big, lofty dreams and goals, like clouds floating high in a blue sky.

Free practice sheet

Regular script · PDF, 2 pages (model + tracing) · 271 KB

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Meaning

What means

A Japanese four-character idiom, yojijukugo, read seiun taishi.

LiterallyBlue clouds, great ambition.

青雲大志 means holding great dreams and high goals, like clouds floating high in a blue sky. It expresses the wish to grow into a person of real worth.

“At graduation, our teacher wrote seiun taishi on the board and told us to dream big.”

When people write it in Japan. It suits kakizome, the first calligraphy of the New Year, or any piece about future dreams and big goals.

blue; green; young8 strokes · Taught in 1st grade in Japan
cloud12 strokes · Taught in 2nd grade in Japan
big; great3 strokes · Taught in 1st grade in Japan
will; aspiration7 strokes · Taught in 5th grade in Japan

Japanese children know every kanji here by 5th grade.

How to write it

Brush tips for

Three things to watch

  1. In the 月 at the bottom of 青, bring the 6th stroke down the right side and finish with a flick to the upper left.
  2. In 大, open the 2nd stroke, a sweep to the left, and the 3rd stroke, a sweep to the right, freely to both sides.
  3. In the 士 at the top of 志, make the 1st stroke, a horizontal, long and the 3rd stroke, a horizontal, short. If you swap their lengths, it turns into 土 (earth).

Stroke order

Follow the vermilion stroke, frame by frame.

Stroke order data: KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0.

How to practice

Trace first, then copy

  1. PrintPrint both pages at actual size, on US Letter or A4. Page 1 is the model. Page 2 is the tracing sheet.
  2. TraceTrace the outlines with a brush pen. Or lay thin hanshi paper over the page and trace with brush and ink.
  3. CopySet the model beside your paper and copy it stroke by stroke. Look at the model more than at your own paper.

Free for personal practice and classroom use. Please do not sell or re-post the files. Share a link to this page instead.

Ready to write ?Model + tracing sheet · US Letter or A4 · free
Cover of Japanese Calligraphy for Beginners by Sanayuki Morita

While the sets are on their way

The book is out now.

Japanese Calligraphy for Beginners takes you from holding the brush to writing whole words, step by step, in English. Every model inside was brushed by our teachers.

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