水に流す mizu ni nagasu Forgive and Forget

Forgive and Forget in Japanese is 水に流す which is read mizu ni nagasu

水に流す (mizu ni nagasu): forgive and forget; literally, set it adrift on the water.

What is set adrift is a grudge, a quarrel, the knot an old wrong leaves in the heart. To set it adrift is to make what happened as if it had not, and to hold nothing against what is past. It is an act done to the grudge, not a lapse of memory. So forgive comes before forget, and it is said at the moment two parties make up. The water is a rite's water. At the purification, a paper figure that has taken the year's defilements is set adrift on a stream. The idiom sends the grudge down the same river. A person who hangs it for a quarrel settled, or for the one they mean to settle, has the phrase exactly.

It is the scroll for a quarrel settled.

The idiom is Edo stage speech, first known in a play of 1825 by Tsuruya Nanboku, where a geisha accepts the forgiveness of the samurai she has swindled, and it grew from an older phrase, "make water of it," which meant to forgive by 1806; the earliest known English equation, "to forget and forgive," is a phrase dictionary's of 1909.

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

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