The art show was attended by over 100 people, including the head of UNESCO Tashkent Office, chair of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan and deputy head of the Russian version of Hello! Magazine among others. Twenty-three exquisite works by Honda were on display.

Fuad Koichi Honda is chairman of the Japan Arab Calligraphy Association and a professor at Daito Bunka University in Japan. Honda is Japan’s leading master calligrapher of Arabic, whose works have won him worldwide recognition. Some of his calligraphic masterpieces, e.g. “The Face of God” (a series of Koranic quotes on blue, red and yellow backgrounds), can be found in the British Museum in London.

Jorge Espinal, head of the UNESCO Tashkent Office:

“Asrlar sadosi Festival” is one of the best ways to conserve and revive Uzbekistan’s cultural heritage. This sort of projects contribute to the popularization of Uzbek culture worldwide as well as kurash wrestling, calligraphy and other arts. If there are people who have never heard of kurash, this is an opportunity to learn about it and they will definitely fall in love with Uzbekistan. Each year the Festival is held in a different city and this enriches this project. This is the third year UNESCO has participated in the project. And I think Bukhara is a perfect venue for this sort of events. This city is the essence of Uzbek culture; it’s a living city, a part of global history. The Festival will come to an end, but people will continue to live here.”

After he graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1969, Honda was hired by a cartographic company which had contracts with several Middle Eastern governments. One of the few Arabic speaking Japanese, he was sent to Saudi Arabia, Libya and Yemen to work as a translator. Honda soon was so proficient that he was selected to lead a mineral-resources survey team run by the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum. The next three years he spent almost entirely in the desert, where his companions were largely Bedouins. This was experience that changed his life.

Koichi Honda, a master of calligraphy (Japan):

“I started learning Arabic forty years ago. Reading the Koran in Arabic inspired me to create artworks with calligraphy as their central motif. Later I embraced Islam in order to better feel the essence of this faith and to feel God. My works are a Japanese style of expressing Islam and Islamic culture. Here at this exhibition you can see 22 of my pieces. They have previously traveled to other countries and now they are in Uzbekistan. I am very happy to be in this city of Bukhara, which is so crucial to Uzbekistan’s development. Many thanks to the Fund Forum for inviting me to this Festival and organizing my exhibition. It is a big honor to be in the land of Bahauddin Naqshbandi. I’m having a great time here. I did not expect my artistic activities would receive so much attention here. There is a lot in common between our cultures and traditions. By creating works with holy calligraphic inscriptions, I express my understanding of God. Some people see something very important in my creations while for some thie may be just like hieroglyphs.”

Honda was introduced to the art of Arabic calligraphy while on a visit to the aerial photography section of the Saudi government where he saw official calligraphers at work. The use of calligraphy in official documents was standard practice at the time. “I fell in love with the beauty of the lines,” he once said while admitting that never before had he appreciated any form of calligraphic art until he saw beautifully intricate lettering created by calligraphers. He wasted no time in asking one of the calligraphers to teach him the basics of this art so that he could start practicing.

After returning to Japan, Honda embraced Islam and took the Muslim name Fuad (Heart). He taught Arabic and continued to study Arabic calligraphy relying on the books he had brought from Saudi Arabia and using the qalam (calligrapher’s pen) he made himself. In 1988, the Iraqi government invited Honda to participate in a calligraphy festival in Baghdad, which brought together hundreds of professionals from around the world. There he met big-name professionals in the art, including Turkish master Hasan Çelebi, from whom he later received an ijaza (diploma) in calligraphy, which boosted his credentials as a calligraphy professional. He set up the Japan Arab Calligraphy Association where he teaches Arabic calligraphy not only to Japanese people but also to Arabs working in Japan. At an international calligraphy competition held in 2006 in Istanbul three of the four winners were Honda’s students.