梅遠近 南すべく 北すべく ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku buson 蕪村 Plum blossoms everywhere, I should go south, I should go north

Plum blossoms everywhere,
I should go south,
I should go north

梅遠近南すべく北すべく (ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku): plum blossoms here and there; south would do, and north would do. 遠近, ochikochi, is far and near, here and there; 南すべく and 北すべく are to go south and to go north, each with べく, would do, may, and nothing after them, so the sentence stops in the air. Within fifteen years of its first print, a Kyoto gazetteer had attached it to a plum-viewing valley near Fushimi. The grammar books made it their example of the unsaid close, and supplied what is left out: either way, as the heart pleases. Blyth called the feeling nameless and read it the same way, anywhere will do in these days of renewed life. Plum everywhere, so both roads are good: the verse is not a choice but a spring in which any direction is right. The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

The verse is Buson's: he wrote it out under the headnote 野徑梅, plum along the field paths, in a letter to his pupil 霞夫 that a 1925 edition dates provisionally to 1777, and it was first printed in his 蕪村句集 of 1784.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 梅遠近南すべく北すべく.

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The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with real silk borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by Sankō (株式会社三幸) in Gifu prefecture, which has been making high quality scrolls since 1947, and we have worked with Sankō for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase