Life in Every Breath

吐く息一つにも生命が宿り (hakuiki hitotsu ni mo seimei ga yadori): life in every breath; in even one breath breathed out, life dwells. 吐く息 hakuiki is a breath breathed out; 一つ hitotsu is one; にも ni mo is even in; 生命 seimei is life as a phenomenon, the larger word beside 命; が marks it as the subject; 宿り yadori is the continuative of 宿る yadoru, to dwell within, and leaving the verb in that form leaves the sentence open, as a line of speech is. The line is Katsumoto's in The Last Samurai (2003), in the cherry garden the morning after the night attack: like these blossoms, we are all dying. To know life in every breath, every cup of tea, every life we take. The way of the warrior. Life in every breath. That is Bushido. The design's five words are the middle of that speech; the English is Katsumoto's exactly, and the Japanese renders it.

This poetic phrase captures the idea that one's entire life can come down to a single breath. This is the perfect gift for any fan of the movie "The Last Samurai" or a student of Bushido, The Way of the Warrior.