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.
Lifting up the hatchet,
To cut it down,
It was budding
nata agete
kiran to sureba
konome kana
鉈あげて
きらんとすれば
木の芽かな
shiki
子規
Hatchet raised, about to cut, and there, the buds.
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.
Your scroll ships from Master Takase's studio in Washington State. Shipping is calculated at checkout. We ship worldwide.
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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
Masaoka Shiki's verse is a hand that stops. The hatchet is raised and the cut is coming. Then the buds on the tree are seen, and the blade does not come down. Readers have taken it as the tenderness of mind that haiku shows, perhaps a little too plainly.
In the Japanese, きらんとすれば is about to cut, when: the moment of seeing sits in that turn. 木の芽, konome, is the new growth breaking from a tree, a spring season word. The hands end the verse two ways, 哉 on some and かな on others, and the two are one word.
Translation by R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume Four: Autumn-Winter (1952), Preface, page vii.
Shiki entered the verse among his verses of 1893 in 寒山落木, the manuscript collection of his own haiku, and it was first printed in 1924, in the first volume of his collected works.
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 鉈あげてきらんとすれば木の芽かな.
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