SHODO WORKSHOP

Kuniharu Yoshida (KUNI) is a Japanese Calligrapher and Hip-hop dancer. He was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, into a family of generational Master Calligraphers, and is currently based in Los Angeles, CA. In 1990 at the age of six, he began to learn Japanese Calligraphy under Master Yoshiko Kawakita. After practicing traditional calligraphy for two decades, he began to experiment and collaborate with artists to combine sublime arts, merging traditional with contemporary. Respect between different cultures is the foundation of Kuniharu’s unique work, designed to intertwine not just art but also audiences. He finds art is a great way to increase understanding amongst people of various backgrounds while communicating one’s culture in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. Most notably, his works have been included in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum’s Ueno Art Exhibition with Japan Calligraphy Exhibition and he has done performances for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Netflix, and Sony Electronics. In recent years, Kuniharu has expanded his work into directorial and production work, where his short film First Street North won Best Documentary Short in the 2019 Asian Film Festival of Dallas.