蛇の道は蛇 ja no michi wa hebi Snakes Follow The Way Of Serpents

The saying plays on two readings of one character, 蛇 read ja, the great serpent, and 蛇 read hebi, the ordinary snake: the great serpent's path, the small snake knows it. The line has meant both the expert who knows the trade and the insider who knows a hidden world. A 1910 dictionary of proverbs files it under expertise, beside 餅は餅屋, rice cakes from the rice-cake maker, and prints Set a thief to catch a thief among its European parallels. The title, Snakes Follow the Way of Serpents, first printed in the 1920s and carried by Buchanan in 1965, keeps two English words for one animal.

A Japanese folk saying, not a line from a book: the 日本国語大辞典's first example is the proverb collection 毛吹草 of 1638, and the same words stand earlier as a comparison in a monk's saying in the late-Kamakura 一言芳談, a line the dictionary counts as a parallel figure.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 蛇の道は蛇.

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.

Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.

If you need your design again later, ask us for it and we will send it.