Block · kaisho 楷書 · VB5J
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.
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.
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
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.
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 急がば回れ.
