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.
活人剣
katsujinken
Life Giving Sword
The sword that gives life, a sword used to preserve life rather than to take it.
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
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. The other half of 活人剣, 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.
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 活人剣.
