Historically shakyo served a genuinely practical function alongside its devotional one, since hand copying was, before printing became widespread, the primary means by which Buddhist scripture was reproduced and disseminated at all, so that generations of monastic copyists across East Asia produced the manuscript tradition through which Buddhist texts were transmitted, a labour intensive practice whose devotional framing gave sacred purpose to what was also simply necessary textual work.
Once printing displaced hand copying as the practical means of producing sutra texts, shakyo did not disappear but shifted decisively toward its purely devotional and, in the modern period, explicitly meditative and therapeutic register, promoted today by many temples as a form of accessible moving meditation, the sustained, careful attention brushwork demands offered as a way to quiet and focus the mind comparable in effect, though not in form, to seated meditation practice. Contemporary shakyo sessions attract both committed Buddhist practitioners seeking a traditional devotional discipline and a considerably wider public, including many with no particular Buddhist commitment, drawn to the practice for its calming, concentration building effect, a popularity that has made shakyo one of the more visible points of contact between traditional Japanese Buddhist practice and contemporary, more secular interest in mindfulness and contemplative activity.