Cursive · sōsho 草書 · VC3B
Cursive or sōsho (草書) styles are the most simplified styles and Master Takase's favorite. While very beautiful, these styles are often difficult to read even by specialists.
住めば都
sumeba miyako
Home Is Where You Live
Live there, and it is the capital: any place becomes home once you have lived in it.
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
住めば都 says that wherever you live, you come to call it home. 住めば means if you live there, once you live there, and 都 is the capital. The proverb is about growing used to a place, never about choosing one. The dictionaries add a second turn: hardship too, once you are used to it, becomes a pleasure of the mind. We read its force in the failed consolation it began as: a courtier in exile wrote it of his emperor, and still longed for the capital.
A twin one vowel away, 住まば都 (sumaba miyako), means the reverse: if you are to live anywhere, let it be the capital. The design says sumeba.
The sentence's oldest witness found is a Taira court poem written in exile with the child emperor's fled court; the chronicles disagree on the poet, the place and the year: the 源平盛衰記 gives it to 平大納言時忠 at sea, after the flight from 太宰府 of 1183, on the set topic "love, on the moon", the 長門本 平家物語 to 時忠 at 山鹿 on the Kyushu coast, and the common text of the 平家物語 to 左馬頭行盛 at Yashima a year later. In a tale of the Muromachi kind, its own date unknown, the sentence has detached from the emperor, in the fuller form 住めばいづくも都なり.
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 住めば都.
