Martial Arts Calligraphy

Martial Arts Calligraphy is one of the minor esoteric styles of martial arts observed in the series. Only three practitioners of it are depicted between the anime and the manga, and so little concrete evidence about the style exists.

The first practitioner to be seen is an elderly hermit who, in gratitude for Ryoga feeding him, uses the secret Martial Arts Calligraphy attack "Mark of the Battling Gods" upon him to vastly increase his strength.

The second practitioner is the anime-only character Sotatsu Jikei'ien, who offers a fairly detailed look at official competitive Martial Arts Calligraphy.

The third and final practitioner is one by implication only. The manga-only character Rakkyosai wields a style that goes unnamed, but seems quite logically to be Martial Arts Calligraphy, as it makes use of calligraphy brushes and ink as weapons.

As a consequence, this article is comprised mostly of deductions and speculations.

Martial Arts Calligraphy is a combat form designed primarily for competitions. In an official Martial Arts Calligraphy match, all combatants are armed with oversized calligraphy brushes (easily the size of quarterstaves) and challenged to draw a judge-selected kanji character as quickly, neatly and precisely as possible. As they draw, though, the combatants are encouraged to attack each other with brushes, ink, improvised weapons derived from calligraphy paraphenlia (such as inkstones and letter holders), and, finally, bare hands. The winner is whoever completes their kanji first, to the judge's standing; being the last one standing is not required, but certainly makes it much easier to complete.

However, because of their training, a Martial Arts Calligrapher can actually fight in regular battles as well, using their unorthodox weaponry to gain a psychological advantage over their foes. The oversized brushes make excellent quarterstaves, smaller versions can be used as cudgels or shortstaves, and ink can be used as a way to blind or impair a foe; those martial artists with greater training can achieve more spectacular effects by using secret ink recipes and/or channeling their ki into the ink.

A more secret branch of the art is using special ink patterns on the skin to aid in the channeling of internal ki. There is only one example of this branch, and that is the Mark of the Battling Gods, which uses its goofy-looking form to tap into a ki energy center below the belly button and vastly increase the bearer's strength, speed and skill. These special markings, being that they are tied to the user's own ki energy, are thusly impossible to remove through conventional techniques.

Solid Ink: While this ability is not named, Sotatsu Jikei'ien displays the ability to project ink across a distance simply by striking with his oversized calligraphy brush. Whilst it is his skill that lets him "throw" the ink to form a recognizable shape, it is presumably through ki manipulation that this projectile ink strikes hard enough to carry a person along, as seen when he literally paints Tatewaki Kuno through the air and into a wall. Rakkyosai also possibly displays this in one panel, where he uses it to attack Happosai.

Inextricable Ink: A special technique of Rakkyosai's, this is a combination of ink and mystical glue that solidifies into a gummy substance when it completes its rapid drying. Delivered by touch or by being thrown through the air to splatter on a victim, it grows tighter the more that the victim struggles.

Spider Thread of Ink: A large amount of Inextricable Ink is launched from Rakkyosai's calligraphy brush to form a massive sticky spider-web of ink-glue.

Blazing Ink-Ring: Rakkyosai draws a marking on a surface with his calligraphy brush, and the lines of ink ignite to create walls of flame.

Wasabi-Ink Bomb: Rakkyosai throws droplets of ink that explode in clouds of choking, stinging gas.

Wild Butterfly Dance: Rakkyosai creates ink-shapes of butterflies by sweeping droplets of specially-created rainbow colored ink into the air. These are used to distract and disorientate his opponents.