The first half of the Dakar Rally has been a battle for Teruhito Sugawara, but sitting eighth in Truck after eight legs is pretty solid. With five stages to go, he hopes his HINO 600 will rise to the occasion.

On the roof of Sugawara’s truck is the Japanese character 昇 (“Noboru”), which means “rise”. It was painted by Airi Hara, a shodō artist who was in the bivouac on New Year’s Day for a special nighttime performance during scrutineering where painted an elaborate piece on the side of HINO Team Sugawara’s trailer.

The hood of Aleš Loprais’ IVECO PowerStar also has dragon-themed illustrations by Hara since he nicknamed his truck “Red Dragon”. This includes wings on the InstaTrade and dragon heads along the sides.

Hara is a New York-based artist specializing in shodō, or Japanese calligraphy, who mainly does performances for art galleries and exhibitions. While calligraphy is her focus, she also does traditional artwork.

Her work has also been used by those like the New York Mets, who featured her calligraphy in May as part of AAPI Heritage Night.

The ASO invited Hara to Saudi Arabia, where she got to paint and meet with various competitors. Fellow Japanese racers like Sugawara and Shinya Fujiwara were naturally those whom she mingled with, but she also presented art for those like Rebellion Spierings.

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI / ASO