Meet Master Eri Takase

Eri Takase is a Master Japanese Calligrapher born and raised in Osaka, Japan. She has practiced calligraphy since she was six years old, achieving the rank of Shihan from two of the most prestigious calligraphic societies, the Bokuteki-kai and Bunka-shodo, having won multiple best-of-category awards in all-Japan national competitions.

Master Takase's unique calligraphic style is easily recognized and has been described as refined and cultured. To view Master Takase's award-winning work, visit Traditional Japanese Calligraphy.

The calligraphy on the right is a 112-character poem by Sonpun brushed on a single 20¾″ × 89¾″ sheet, chosen for an exhibition at the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts.

Artistic Freedom

In 1995 Eri moved to the United States and began exploring Japanese calligraphy on non-traditional mediums. She soon joined Virginia Artisans and met papermaker Virginia Sarsfield, and began working with western-style papers. From there she began doing art shows, including the juried 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago and the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts in Tampa. In an interview from this time Eri was quoted as saying, "Japanese Calligraphy is too beautiful a bird to be locked in the cage of a thousand years of tradition."

You can see this influence on Eri's early works from this period at Early Works.

It was here that Eri began working with people directly to create art that they wanted, and this solidified her drive and passion to make Japanese calligraphy approachable and personal.

Onkochishin

The stark contrast between traditional mastery and artistic freedom actually had no tension. Eri firmly embraces the adage onkochishin — 温故知新 — "Respect the Past, Create the New": that only by mastering what has come before can one truly create something new.

You may remember it from Iron Chef Japan — the New York Battle, June 26, 2000. Iron Chef Michiba, presented Morimoto with dried bonito and on the box had brushed 温故知新 which was translated as: "respect the old and search for the new." To our knowledge, it was the first time the phrase was introduced to a wide American audience. And the show even today is talked about.

It is with this deep respect for Japanese tradition and art that Eri made it her life's work to make traditional Japanese Calligraphy, at the highest level available and accessible. And onkochishin has been at the center of her artistic career.

In Practice

For more than thirty years, Eri has been creating art for people, for products, for books, and for film — and the work has reached further than even she expected.

You may have seen her calligraphy without knowing it. Her work was the centerpiece of the TV Guide After Party for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, and the elegant invitations she brushed for the event were featured on NBC's EXTRA.

If you live in Sweden, you may have seen her work in the dairy aisle: the kanji 穏やか — odayaka, "calm" — that Eri brushed for Arla Foods' Onaka soy milk, developed with Volt Advertising in Stockholm. Master Japanese calligraphy on a carton of milk, half a world from Osaka.

And sometimes it travels closer than that. Eri has been brushing custom tattoo designs for over twenty years — names, phrases, words that someone wants to carry on their own skin for the rest of their life. The four characters above are 正勝吾勝 — masakatsu agatsu, "true victory is victory over oneself" — an Aikido phrase from the writings of Morihei Ueshiba, brushed by Eri as a custom design.

There is much more — book covers for Between Two Souls by Mary Lou Kownacki and others, the Tattoo Sourcebook (HarperCollins 2008), fashion work for Ralph Rucci, the Kata Dolphin she designed for Dr. Omar Ahmad's rehabilitation work with children and stroke patients at Johns Hopkins. A sample of her commercial portfolio is at Commercial Calligraphy.

Published Interviews

If you'd like to hear Eri in her own words:

• Japanese Calligraphy Techniques and Process — Photoshop Magazine
• Master Calligrapher Eri Takase on the Art and Energy of Japanese Calligraphy — California Reiki / The Reiki Digest
• Interview with Master Calligrapher Eri Takase — Anime Reign

Today

Eri today works mainly with creating beautiful Japanese scrolls — a quieter pace and almost entirely custom designs. If you are looking for a custom scroll, design, and, yes, even a custom tattoo design please Contact Eri. We also have an extensive library of Names in Japanese and Kanji design that can be immediately downloaded with your order.