Ippitsuryu, the ancient Japanese tradition of painting dragons 🐉

Ippitsuryu is an ancient Japanese tradition of creating a dragon's body that flows like a river in just one motion.

In this video shared by Massimo (@Rainmaker1973), artist Keisuke Tashima demonstrates the Ipputsuryu technique to paint a dragon's snaking body. This ancient Japanese tradition technique requires excellent hand balance.

This ancient Japanese art tradition began in the early 1600s, in the Edo era. Like its Japanese name, ippitsuryu (translated as ippitsu: multiple lines, strokes; ryu: dragon) or hitohuderyu (hitrhude: one hit; ryu: dragon), this technique uses as few strokes as possible to create the body of the legendary Japanese beast, the dragon.

Often passed down from generation to generation, this form of sumi-e painting uses ink and brush strokes, similar to calligraphy. The focus of this art form is on the beauty of brush strokes. Watch the beauty unfold!