Block · kaisho 楷書 · VB5J
Block or kaisho (楷書) styles are the most common and recognizable styles. Block styles are easily read and are noted for their angular form and their vertical and horizontal lines.
Stillness:
the cicada's voice
seeps into the rocks
shizukasa ya
iwa ni shimiiru
semi no koe
閑さや
岩にしみ入
蝉の声
bashō
芭蕉
Stillness: the cicada's voice seeps into the rocks.
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.
Gift-Ready
Your scroll arrives boxed, with a printed insert describing the haiku in detail.
Sending it as a gift? Add your message at checkout and we will include it with the insert.
Ships in 1-3 days from Washington State
Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days.
Your scroll ships from Master Takase's studio in Washington State. Shipping is calculated at checkout. We ship worldwide.
30-day money-back guarantee
Every order is covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee. If your scroll arrives damaged, or we made an error, we replace it or refund you in full, including shipping.
Explanation
The line stops on the stillness, and the cicada's voice soaks into the rock. The デジタル大辞泉 defines しみいる as seeping deep into a thing, and also deep into the heart. Japanese does not mark the number, so the voice may be one cicada's or many.
閑さや … しみ入 and 閑かさや … しみ入る are two spellings of one verse, read the same way. Eri's block and semi-cursive scrolls write 閑かさや … しみ入る, and her cursive and design scrolls write 閑さや … しみ入.
Sora's notebook of the journey's verses has an earlier form, 山寺や石にしみつく蟬の聲: the mountain temple: sticking to the stones, the cicada's voice. Two anthologies print さびしさや岩にしみ込蟬のこゑ: loneliness: soaking into the rocks, the cicada's voice. Haruo Shirane reads the change of verb as the point: the voice passes, as if untouched, deep into the rocks.
Which cicada the verse hears was argued in print from 1924 to 1932. Saitō Mokichi had written, almost as a certainty, that it was the large abura-zemi. Komiya Toyotaka held for the small niinii-zemi, whose voice runs on like a thread. In 1930 schoolchildren collected the mountain's cicadas, and the niinii-zemi were the great majority. In 1932 Mokichi printed that Komiya's conclusion was the right one, with one reservation: zoologically, as the specimens show, the abura-zemi cannot be ruled out absolutely; but in literature we may rule it out. The matter was not closed for everyone, though the 世界大百科事典 today names the niinii-zemi as the cicada of the verse.
English has to choose the number, and the translators differ. Miyamori Asatarō's version of 1932 has The cicadas' voices. R. H. Blyth's of 1942 has the plural too, with a note: The singular would bring the individual cicada too much to the foreground of the mind. Robert Hass, in 1994, has the cicada's cry.
Matsuo Bashō, at the temple of Risshakuji (Yamadera) in Dewa, on his journey of 1689, in his travel journal 『おくのほそ道』; the first print, of 1702, writes 閑さや … しみ入, with no る, and a 1960 collation reports the same in both manuscripts in his scribe Soryū's hand.
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 閑さや岩にしみ入蝉の声.
Related products
Bashō - How admirable, to see lightning, and not think life is fleeting稲妻にさとらぬ人の貴さよ inazuma ni satoranu hito no tattosa yo
Bashō - Summer grass, all the warriors are, but the remains of dreams夏草や兵どもが夢の跡 natsukusa ya tsuwamono domo ga yume no ato
Bashō - The old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water古池や蛙飛込水の音 furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
