善は急げ zen wa isoge If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Promptly

If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Promptly in Japanese is 善は急げ which is read zen wa isoge

善は急げ (zen wa isoge): hurry the good.

善 is a good thing to do and 急げ is the imperative of 急ぐ, to hurry, so the proverb is a command: do a good thing at once, before the chance is lost. It is in a haikai handbook of 1638 with a second half, 悪は延べよ (aku wa nobeyo), put off the bad. Both forms have been current since. From a geisha in 1777 to the uncle in Sōseki's Kokoro of 1914, its speakers use it to hurry a wedding or a bargain.

English equivalents such as strike while the iron is hot are about acting now; the Japanese keeps the goodness of the thing as its object, which makes it a moral maxim and not a counsel of speed.

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

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.

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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