Jiun · 自運 · VD4B
Jiun (自運) is the calligrapher's word for writing from one's own invention. As a Shihan, Master Takase has a hand of her own, and these designs are that hand: she draws freely on the classic scripts to create exactly the look she wants.
活人剣
katsujinken
Life Giving Sword
The sword that gives life, a sword used to preserve life rather than to take it.
Master Takase creates this beautiful scroll when your order is placed, personally preparing the ink and brushing your art, which proudly bears her signature and seal. This is an original work of art.
Description
Life Giving Sword in Japanese is 活人剣 which is read katsujinken
活人剣 (katsujinken): the sword that gives life, a sword used to preserve life rather than to take it.
活人剣 is the giving half of a Zen pair whose other half, 殺人刀, is the sword that kills. The dictionaries put it plainly: a sword is made to wound, and the way it is used can make it give life. In the sword schools it is the sword not held in an attacking stance, the one that draws the other to act. Zen and the sword have each read it their own way, and which of them it means is yours to choose.
In Zen the two swords are one teacher's two hands, what he takes from a student and what he gives, and a master must have both. In Japan the line went to war: a Takeda house rule glossed the samurai's sword with it, a captain shouted it as he charged, and Yagyū Munenori, the shōgun's sword-master, made the two halves the titles of two of his books of the sword and explained the pair as the sword that kills one evil man so that ten thousand may live.
One connoisseur wrote in disgust of a scroll from which a dealer had cut the killing word. Life Giving Sword is the Zen translators' English, and the title Hiroaki Sato, William Scott Wilson and Thomas Cleary gave Yagyū's book. Its other half, satsujinken, is offered on its own.
A Chan saying that the masters of the 景徳伝灯録 of 1004 already trade as a proverb, it came to Japan with Zen in the thirteenth century, and in 1632 the sword-master Yagyū Munenori made its second half the name of a book.
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 活人剣.
Delivery
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.
Sending it as a gift? Add your message at checkout and we will include it.
Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $23. We ship worldwide, and any import charges for your country are shown at checkout before you pay.
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. Refund policy
About Our Scrolls
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 woven damask borders and layered Japanese paper, designed to last generations. The scrolls themselves are made by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, and we have worked with them 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
