Like Father, Like Daughter

此の父にして此の娘有り (kono chichi ni shite kono musume ari): like father, like daughter, and in Japanese the likeness is praise. 此の kono is this; 父 chichi is father; にして ni shite is being such, given such a father; 娘 musume is daughter; 有り ari is there is: given this father, there is this daughter. The proverb behind it, この父にしてこの子あり, is Confucian, from the 孔叢子, where with such a father there is such a son, the constant way of things; Japanese has said it since Bakin's 椿説弓張月 of 1807, always as admiration, a child worthy of a fine parent. The proverb's 子 is a child of either sex, and Master Takase brushed the line with 娘, daughter, in its place, so that it is a daughter who is her father's equal. The daughter form is the studio's own: in 2010 a customer asked for like father, like daughter and proposed the change himself, 息子 out and 娘 in; the son had been on the shelf since 2002, and Master Takase brushed the daughter that autumn.