Is that drawing in japanese? if so, can you please tell me what it says?


[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/acPDA.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/acPDA.jpg)

I saw this drawing at a friend's house and wondered what it means;
unfortunately the friend has no idea. Another friend suggested it's hiragana
script, hence the question here: can you please tell me if it's japanese or
not and what's the meaning of it?




As we've been discussing in the comments, this is a form of 書道｛しょどう｝ -
_shodou_ , or Japanese calligraphy. In particular, it's one of the forms where
the artist takes some liberties with how they write the characters, resulting
in a more cursive, artistic piece but unfortunately also making it a little
harder to read if you're not familiar with the way such writing is done.

That said, it's almost certainly one of two (related) words:

  * 仲よい｛なかよい｝ _nakayoi_ , meaning intimate or close (in terms of friendship)

  * 仲よし｛なかよし｝ _nakayoshi_ , meaning an intimate or close friend

In both cases, the _naka_ part is written in kanji (Chinese script used in
Japanese), and the other part is written in hiragana (the main "syllabric"
script in Japanese). My money is on it being nakayoshi, but I'm definitely not
a calligraphy expert.

There is also an artist's signature and seal in the corner, but the photo
quality isn't good enough to make them out.




As we've been discussing in the comments, this is a form of 書道｛しょどう｝ -
_shodou_ , or Japanese calligraphy. In particular, it's one of the forms where
the artist takes some liberties with how they write the characters, resulting
in a more cursive, artistic piece but unfortunately also making it a little
harder to read if you're not familiar with the way such writing is done.

That said, it's almost certainly one of two (related) words:

  * 仲よい｛なかよい｝ _nakayoi_ , meaning intimate or close (in terms of friendship)

  * 仲よし｛なかよし｝ _nakayoshi_ , meaning an intimate or close friend

In both cases, the _naka_ part is written in kanji (Chinese script used in
Japanese), and the other part is written in hiragana (the main "syllabric"
script in Japanese). My money is on it being nakayoshi, but I'm definitely not
a calligraphy expert.

There is also an artist's signature and seal in the corner, but the photo
quality isn't good enough to make them out.

