Block · kaisho 楷書 · VB5C
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.
The old pond,
a frog jumps in,
the sound of water[1]
furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
古池や
蛙飛込
水の音
bashō
芭蕉
The old pond; a frog jumps in, the sound of water.
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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Explanation
古池や蛙飛込水の音 is Matsuo Bashō's verse of one sound. An old pond lies still. A frog goes in, and the poem ends on the water's sound. や sets the pond down on its own before anything happens in it. 蛙, kawazu, is the classical word for a frog and marks the spring, and 飛込, to leap in, is written here without its kana ending. In 1783 the commentator Sanriki set down three sentences on it: the sound is the water's, the leap is the frog's, and the place is the pond.
Calligraphy Notes:
1) Note that we have used the shortened version of tobikomu, the full form is 飛び込む (read tobikomu) meaning "to jump in; to leap in; to plunge into; to dive in".
References:
[1] After R. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 1 (Hokuseido Press, 1949), p. 277.
The earliest prints of the verse read here are of 1686: it stands at the head of 蛙合, a contest of frog verses among Bashō's circle held that spring, set against Senka 仙化's frog on a floating leaf in the first round; the contest's note on that round, as Hattori quotes it, says the whole book grew from those two frogs.
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 古池や蛙飛込水の音.
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