父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields

Were my father here, I would want to see the dawn over the green fields.

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields (父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原) in Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Vertical Cursive VC6B

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields (父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原) in Design style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Vertical Design VD4B

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Vertical Design VD5B

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields (父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原) in Semi-Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Vertical Semi-Cursive VS6C

Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara Vertical Semi-Cursive VS6D

More about 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原

Were my father here At dawn we would gaze Over the green fields	chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara	父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原
Issa	issa	一茶

Issa's verse is grief said as plainly as it can be. A son names the one thing he wants and cannot have, and then says nothing more.

In the Japanese, 父ありて means if my father were here, so the whole line is a wish. 青田原 is the plain of green rice fields in early summer, when the planted rice has taken and a valley is all one green. Some designs write あけぼの with the kanji 明, and one writes 見たし with the kanji 見. The words are the same.

The English is R. H. Blyth's, from his History of Haiku of 1963.

The verse closes the diary Issa kept of his father's last illness and death in the early summer of 1801, a manuscript he left untitled and is thought to have finished in 1807 or 1808, at the seventh-day memorial where the family agreed to keep the father's will.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原.

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.

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Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields (chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara)

Haiku by Issa on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

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Issa - Were my father here, At dawn we would gaze, Over the green fields as a hand-brushed scroll

Master Takase personally brushes your scroll when you order, and it bears her red seal and her signature. The scroll has real silk borders and layered Japanese paper, so it hangs straight, and it arrives ready to display.