一石二鳥 issekinichō Kill two birds with one stone

Kill two birds with one stone in Japanese is 一石二鳥 which is read issekinichō

一石二鳥 (isseki nichō): one stone, two birds.

Two ends by one act, and the four characters are the English proverb itself, kill two birds with one stone, written in kanji, so the compound keeps the whole picture and loses nothing between the languages. In English and in Japanese alike it is a plain word of approval for doing two things with one effort. Japanese had an older word for the thought, 一挙両得 (ikkyo ryōtoku), one move, two gains, and the Meiji dictionaries mostly set it in the picture's place, though the first English-Japanese dictionary, in 1862, had translated the picture word for word; whether you hang it as the English you know or as the Japanese word it became is yours.

A calque of the English proverb to kill two birds with one stone, printed in 1656 in Bishop Bramhall's reply to Hobbes; the English-Japanese dictionary the shogunate printed in 1862 translated it word for word, 石ニテ鳥二羽ヲ殺ス, later dictionaries gave 一石を以て二鳥を殺す, 一挙両得 or both, and the four characters, written once in 1906, became a word in the Taishō, with no named maker.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 一石二鳥.

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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