一拳必殺 ikken hissatsu Kill with One Blow

一拳必殺 (ikken hissatsu): one fist, certain kill.

一拳必殺 is the karate ideal of the single decisive technique. It asks for the whole self behind one blow, and the spirit that trains for it. The karate teachers who use it are plain that killing is not the aim. The aim is to end a fight in the shortest time. The characters say one fist, certain kill; in a dojo they mean the decisive technique. A person who hangs them on a dojo wall hangs that creed. 一撃必殺, ichigeki hissatsu, the same ideal with the strike named, is sold here as its own design.

The English follows Nakayama Masatoshi's, from his Best Karate of 1977. 一拳必殺 is composed of the kanji 一 (read ichi) meaning "one", 拳 (read ken) meaning "fist", and the word 必殺 (read hissatsu) meaning "certain kill".

一拳必殺, one fist where the older phrase has one strike, has a single Japanese witness, a 1942 model essay for civil-service candidates in Manchukuo, and lives on as ikken hissatsu, the romaji of the English-language Shōtōkan books since 1977.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 一拳必殺.

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.

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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