Eri's Choice · VD5B
Eri's Choice is a design that does not keep strictly to one style; it is Master Takase's own artistic choice.
塵も積もれば山となる
chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru
Even dust if piled can become a mountain
Even dust, piled up, becomes a mountain.
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.
Gift-Ready
Your scroll arrives boxed, with a printed insert describing the words in detail.
Sending it as a gift? Add your message at checkout and we will include it with the insert.
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.
30-day money-back guarantee
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
塵も積もれば山となる (chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru): even dust, piled up, becomes a mountain.
塵も積もれば山となる is about many small things, kept up, adding up to something great. Dust is the least particle of anything, and enough of it makes a mountain. The proverb counts on number, not on one small thing growing great by its nature. What the small things are has changed, among them learning and virtue, the growth of poetry, savings lent out and coins, and the proverb has kept the shape and let the content go. Whether it is for a long project, a savings jar or a daily practice is yours.
Fine dust piled into a mountain is a simile in a Buddhist commentary put into Chinese in the early fifth century, and Bai Juyi's couplet 千里始足下、高山起微塵 is the line a Muromachi commentary and a Meiji one set behind Tsurayuki's preface to the Kokinshū of 905. The dictionary of record gives a Noh play's line, which it dates about 1430, as the saying's earliest cited example, and in 1627 a tract on getting rich prints it of savings lent out at interest.
Learn More About These Words
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 塵も積もれば山となる.
