Cursive · sōsho 草書 · VC6B
Cursive or sōsho (草書) styles are the most simplified styles and Master Takase's favorite. While very beautiful, these styles are often difficult to read even by specialists.
As the temple bell fades
The ringing lingers in the blossom scent
Evening
kane kiete
hana no ka wa tsuku
yūbe kana
鐘消えて
花の香は撞く
夕べ哉
bashō
芭蕉
The bell dies away, and the scent of the blossoms strikes; evening.
by Master Eri Takase
Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Eri Takase received the rank of Shihan, master, from two calligraphy societies, the Bokuteki-kai and Bunka-shodō, and won best-of-category awards in all-Japan national competitions. She has created calligraphy for people around the world for more than thirty years, and with your order she will be creating calligraphy for you.
In a ritual as old as calligraphy itself, Master Takase prepares the ink, meditatively rubbing the ink stick against the stone until it reaches the perfect consistency for the paper. Then, properly loading the brush with ink, she brushes your scroll. And only when the scroll is just right and meets her approval, she signs it and affixes her seal, completing your original scroll.
12 1/4" × 43" (31 × 109 cm) Japanese Scrolls
The scrolls have woven damask borders and special layered Japanese paper (washi), designed to last generations by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, with whom we have worked for over two decades.
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Your scroll arrives boxed, with a printed insert describing the haiku in detail.
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Ships in 1-3 days from Washington State
Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days.
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Explanation
As the temple bell fades The ringing lingers in the blossom scent Evening
| kane kiete hana no ka wa tsuku yūbe kana |
鐘消えて 花の香は撞く 夕べ哉 |
| bashō | 芭蕉 |
鐘消えて花の香は撞く夕べ哉 (kane kiete hana no ka wa tsuku yūbe kana): the bell dies away, and the scent of the blossoms strikes; evening.
Matsuo Bashō's verse moves a sound into a scent. The temple bell dies away, and then the scent of the blossoms strikes, the way a bell is struck. What fades and what strikes have traded places, and the evening holds both. The line can be hard to join, and some readers have heard a pun in it. Others hear the scent keep the bell ringing after the bell is still.
In the Japanese, 鐘消えて is the bell dying away, a sound fading out. 花の香は撞く is the scent of the blossoms strikes. 撞く, tsuku, is the verb for striking a temple bell. Written 衝く, the same word means to thrust or strike, and in the pun the scent strikes the nose. 夕べ哉 is the evening, with 哉 as the cutting word. One of the hands ends on かな for 哉.
The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.
Learn More About This Haiku
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 鐘消えて花の香は撞く夕べ哉.
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