All is Saiou's Horse in Japanese Calligraphy

人間万事塞翁が馬 (ningen banji saiō ga uma)

人間万事塞翁が馬 (ningen banji saiō ga uma): everything in this world is the old man's horse. Good luck and bad turn into each other without warning, so neither is to be rejoiced at or grieved over yet. The story is a Han parable in the 淮南子: an old man by the frontier fort loses his horse, gets it back with another, sees his son break a leg on the new one, and sees that leg keep the son out of the war, declining to react at each turn. A Zen monk of about 1300 gave it these seven characters in a line of verse, and it stands in the first Japanese proverb book of 1638. 人間 is read ningen, as every Edo witness has it; jinkan is a learned modern choice.

Philology of 人間万事塞翁が馬

All is Saiou's Horse (人間万事塞翁が馬) in Block style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Block Vertical VB5C

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Block Vertical VB6C

All is Saiou's Horse (人間万事塞翁が馬) in Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Cursive Vertical VC6B

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Cursive Vertical VC6C

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Cursive Vertical VC6D

All is Saiou's Horse (人間万事塞翁が馬) in Design style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Design Vertical VD6B

All is Saiou's Horse (人間万事塞翁が馬) in Semi-Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Semi-Cursive Vertical VS5C

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Semi-Cursive Vertical VS7C

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Block Horizontal HB7A

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Cursive Horizontal HC6A

All is Saiou's Horse 人間万事塞翁が馬 ningen banji saiō ga uma Semi-Cursive Horizontal HS7A

About the Designs

Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.

Delivery

Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.

All is Saiou's Horse

人間万事塞翁が馬 (ningen banji saiō ga uma)

About the Designs

Delivery

Also available as a hand-brushed Japanese scroll