春の海 終日のたり のたり哉 haru no umi hinemosu notari notari kana buson 蕪村 The spring sea all day rising and falling rising and falling

The spring sea
all day rising and falling
rising and falling ^[1]

春の海終日のたりのたり哉 (haru no umi hinemosu notari notari kana): the spring sea, all day long, swelling and falling, swelling and falling. 春の海 is the spring sea, a calm open surface; 終日, hinemosu, is all day long; のたりのたり is a word for the slow heave of a swell, and the great dictionary of 1919 defines it from this verse; 哉 closes it. The doubling is the poem: the word takes as long to say as a swell takes to pass, and 終日 says it will not stop. The verse was first printed in 1763 in an anthology whose editor judged it plain, calm and free, and in 1797 it was inscribed, with Buson's name, in the sky of a printed view of Edo bay. Every reader since has praised two things in it, its plainness and its sound. The motion is a swell in place, the sea heaving slowly all day.

Translation Notes:

This haiku by Buson consists of the words 春 (read haru) meaning "spring", 海 (read umi) meaning "sea; ocean", 終日 (read hinemosu) meaning "all day long; the whole day", and のたりのたり (read notarinotari) meaning "undulating; rolling slowly; gently swelling". Also notice that the final 哉 (read kana) is often written in either hiragana or kanji and this does not change the meaning.

References:

^[1] After Haruo Shirane, The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 412.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 春の海終日のたりのたり哉.

Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days. It ships by USPS Priority Mail from Master Takase's studio in Washington State, boxed and ready to hang, with a printed page giving the art's English, romaji and Japanese.

Sending it as a gift? Tell us when you order and we will include your message.

Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $22. We ship worldwide, and any import charges for your country are shown at checkout before you pay.

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. Refund policy

Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase brushes your scroll by hand when you order it. Each scroll bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.

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