雨にも負けず風にも負けず ame ni mo makezu, kaze ni mo makezu Be Not Defeated by the Wind, Be Not Defeated by the Rain

雨にも負けず風にも負けず begins a portrait of a person: not beaten by rain or wind, strong in body and few in wants, and going east and west and south and north when he is needed. The two lines open a poem that is one sentence long, and its main verb is the last line: such a person is what I want to become. Every line before it describes that person rather than instructing anyone. Hiroaki Sato, one of its translators, writes that the poet meant it as a prayer. Whether you take it as the poet's prayer or as your own is yours.

The poet wrote it in katakana, and nearly every printing keeps it so. The design writes the two lines in kanji and hiragana.

宮沢賢治 wrote the poem in a black notebook, dated in his own hand to 3 November 1931, two years before his death; it was not published in his lifetime.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 雨にも負けず風にも負けず.

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.

Your purchase includes a personal-use license: use the design as a tattoo reference, frame it, engrave it, print it for yourself, or make it into a gift. For more information see Licensing, which also covers commercial-use options that may be purchased separately.

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