Font Design · VD5J
Font Designs are Master Takase's unique designs. Often she will use her own style or a combination of fonts and, without a classification limit, create exactly the look she wants.
急がば回れ isogaba maware In a Hurry, Go the Long Way Round
The Japanese proverb for taking the safe, sure road over the risky shortcut: in a hurry, go the long way round, and you reach your goal sooner.
Master Takase creates this beautiful scroll when your order is placed. Personally preparing the ink and brushing your art that proudly bears her signature and seal. This is an original work of art.
Description
急がば回れ (isogaba maware): in a hurry, go the long way round. If you want to arrive sooner, take the safe, sure way, however far, rather than the risky shortcut.
急がば is 急ぐ, to hurry, in the conditional of the classical language: if you hurry. 回れ is the imperative of 回る, to go round.
The words are the fourth line of a poem about two ways across the south end of Lake Biwa. In one old form of the poem, the ferry from Yabase may be quicker, but in a hurry go round by the long bridge at Seta. A book of 1690 says the land road round by Seta is easy, but travelers in a hurry take the boat.
A book of instruction for samurai, written about 1725, tells a retainer not to take a boat because the way is shorter. A mishap on the crossing the whole realm uses can be accounted for. A mishap on a side road of his own clever choosing cannot.
Books have set the proverb beside English sayings such as the more haste, the worse speed since 1886. That English proverb says hurry spoils the work; the Japanese one says take the longer, surer road. In 1902 the Japan Times wrote that it means do not make a short cut because of … hidden dangers.
The words are a line of a waka on the Lake Biwa crossing, written down in 1514 in the anthology 雲玉和歌抄 under the name of the Heian poet Minamoto no Toshiyori, and given to the renga master Sōchō by 醒睡笑, a book of comic tales compiled by 1623 and presented in 1628; the saying on its own is in a list of proverbs in a book whose preface is dated 1638.
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 急がば回れ.
Delivery
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? Add your message at checkout and we will include it.
Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $23. 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
About Our Scrolls
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 woven damask borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, and we have worked with them 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
