Semi-Cursive · gyōsho 行書 · VS4C
Semi-Cursive or gyōsho (行書) styles are a simplified and softer form of the kaisho styles. Gyōsho styles can be read by most Japanese.
不名誉より死
fumeiyo yori shi
Death Before Dishonor
Death before dishonor, a vow that honor outranks life.
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
不名誉より死 puts honor above life: a person would rather die than lose their honor. 不名誉 is dishonor, harm done to one's honor, and 死 is death. Set without a verb, as the English motto is, the phrase names first what is set aside and last what is taken. It is good Japanese for a crest, made from a sentence in the books that taught English.
An English phrase in print by 1625, whose Japanese 不名譽より死 and its variants are known from an excerpt of 1898 in the National Diet Library's full-text index, the early witnesses read being books and a magazine of English, where dictionaries of 1906 and 1908 give it beside an English sentence and, in the books read, set it on the Japanese themselves from 1906; the Latin Malo mori quam foedari, in print by 1591, is another vow, the ermine's, which would rather die than be soiled (its white coat, in a book of 1624), and in the sources read meets the English by way of a family's motto and a catechism's gloss of 1878.
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 不名誉より死.
