Cursive · sōsho 草書 · VC3B
Cursive or sōsho (草書) styles are the most simplified styles and Master Takase's favorite. While very beautiful, these styles are often difficult to read even by specialists.
殺人剣
satsujinken
Life Taking Sword
The sword that kills, a sword used to take 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.
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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.
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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
殺人剣 is the killing half of a Zen pair whose other half, 活人剣, is the sword that gives life. In the pair the killing is not a villain's. A Zen teacher holds both swords, and this is the hand that takes from a student, as the other gives. In the sword schools it is the stroke that ends the other's answer. For Yagyū Munenori it is the ruler's sword that kills one evil so that ten thousand may live. Which of these it means is yours to choose. The text here writes 殺人剣 with 剣, as the modern dictionaries head it; the Zen books mostly write this half 殺人刀, with 刀, the single-edged blade.
The other half of 殺人剣, katsujinken, is offered on its own.
殺人剣 is composed of the kanji 殺人 (read satsujin) meaning "killing a person" and 剣 ken3.
Note that the Japanese word satsujin is often translated as murder but this is not strictly correct as satsujin only means "kill a person" which includes murder but it also may mean killing someone evil or killing someone in defense of oneself, one's family or one's country - so it does not have the strictly negative meaning that the word "murder" has.
The first half of a Chan saying already a proverb in the 景徳伝灯録 of 1004; the saying came to Japan with Zen in the thirteenth century, and the Japanese Zen master Kōhō Kennichi wrote this half with 劍, as the scroll does, in his sermons from 1281.
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 殺人剣.
