![Japanese Scroll of Karate [Empty Hand] (karate) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase](/static/images/shop/scrolls/martial-arts/M1030SSVS3A-japanese-scroll-karate-empty-hand-karate-by-eri-takase.bbeb383861edb027.webp)
Semi-Cursive · gyōsho 行書 · VS3C
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.
空手 karate Karate [Empty Hand]
Empty hand: the name of the martial art, in the spelling used today.
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
空手 names the art of fighting with bare hands and empty fists, and it is also plain Japanese for empty-handed. 空 is empty, and in Buddhist use the emptiness of all things, and 手 is the hand. A reader of Japanese sees both lives in the two characters: the art, and a person holding nothing.
空手 is composed of the kanji 空 (read kara) meaning "empty" and 手 (read te) meaning "hand".
The art's name can also be written 唐手 karate3 meaning "China Hand".
The two characters were an ordinary word for empty-handed for more than a thousand years before they named an art; the Okinawan fighting art, written 唐手 and already read karate, was declared by the Keiō club of Funakoshi Gichin's students in Tokyo to be written 空手, on the club's own dating at its meet of 20 October 1929, though 空 stands beside 唐 as early as 1922, in the earliest 空手術 naming the art in the National Diet Library's full-text search, read oldest first; his book of 1935 gave his reasons, that 唐 had been taken for prestige in an age that admired China, that it made the art look like Chinese boxing, and that the art had become Japan's, and chose 空 for the bare hand and, among other meanings, the Buddhist emptiness.
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 空手.
