Block · kaisho 楷書 · VB3C
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.
日々是好日
nichinichi kore kōjitsu
Every day is a good day
Day after day, a good day.
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
日々是好日 is an answer, and its story is better than its moral: asked for one phrase about the days to come, a master's monks said nothing, and he answered for them. With its question it is a koan, and a twelfth-century commentator says that making sense of it from its words is beside the point. Without the question it is a greeting, and in Japan a household phrase for a good and peaceful life; that each day can be made good is a twentieth-century reading, and a fair one. Each half has two readings, nichinichi or hibi, and kōjitsu or kōnichi, and Zen books of the last century mark 好日 both ways.
The answer the Chinese Chan master Yunmen 雲門文偃 (died 949) gave in his monks' place, when he asked them for one phrase about the days after the fifteenth and none of them spoke; it is in his own record, and it became the sixth case of the 碧巌録 of 1125, the book the Japanese dictionaries cite for it.
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 日々是好日.
