一陽来復 ichiyō raifuku Favorable Turn Of Fortune

Literally, one yang returns: the turn has come, and it cannot be undone. The four characters are a picture, six lines, five dark and one bright just arrived at the bottom, the winter solstice in the old calendar, the shortest day, the day the light starts back. Stand close and it is the solstice and the new year; stand back and it is a run of bad luck ending and good beginning, the sense the English title gives, and the tradition keeps all three. What a person means who gives it in a hard year is not that things are good but that the turn has happened, and it is as much a solstice and a New Year's text, one of the few Japanese four-character phrases with a date on the calendar. Which distance is yours.

一陽来復 is composed of the kanji 一 (read ichi) meaning "one", 陽 (read yō) meaning "yang", 来 (read rai) meaning "comes", and 復 (read fuku) meaning "return".

From the I Ching's hexagram of Return, one yang line coming back beneath five yin at the winter solstice; the four characters are first found at the Song court around 1000, and came to Japan in the solstice sermons of the Zen masters of the thirteenth century.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 一陽来復.

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