油断大敵 yudantaiteki Carelessness is one's greatest enemy

Carelessness is one's greatest enemy in Japanese is 油断大敵 which is read yudantaiteki

油断大敵 (yudan taiteki): carelessness is a great enemy.

油断大敵 warns against the relaxed guard. 油断 is letting your guard down, taking a thing too lightly and ceasing to watch it, and 大敵 is a formidable foe. The proverb's force is that it treats a lapse inside you as an enemy outside you. It suits any place where one careless moment costs. Whether you hang it in a dojo, a workshop or your own kitchen is yours.

The proverb is Japanese: the 甲陽軍鑑, a military chronicle compiled by 1621, already cites its older form, carelessness is a strong enemy, as a saying everyone knew; the 毛吹草, the earliest collection of proverbs of the Edo period, compiled in 1638, lists it with a verb, carelessness becomes a strong enemy; and the dictionary's earliest example of the form with 大, a great enemy, is a puppet play of 1668.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 油断大敵.

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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