克己復礼 kokki fukurei Master the Self, Return to Propriety

克己復礼 (kokki fukurei): restraining oneself and keeping to propriety.

克己復礼 is restraining oneself and keeping to propriety. One Japanese dictionary puts it as holding back too much self-assertion and acting as propriety asks. 克己 is to overcome one's own desires. 復礼 is to follow propriety. Whether you take it as a rule of the dōjō or as a rule of daily life is yours.

The Analects passage that holds 克己復礼 goes on to name four particulars. Do not look at, listen to, speak or move in anything contrary to the rites. In Japan the scholar Ogyū Sorai preferred to read 復 as tread: to carry out the rites. In 1803 Suzuki Akira put the line into Japanese prose. He wrote it as To master oneself and tread the rites is goodness.

A jūjutsu manual published in 1894 writes of the undisciplined bouts of the town dōjō. It sets 克己復礼 against the loser of a bout who complains and makes excuses. In English the phrase has been rendered subdue one's self and return to propriety and master oneself and return to propriety. The classical texts write it 克己復禮.

The four characters are Confucius's answer to his disciple Yan Hui, who asked him about goodness, in the Analects, and the 春秋左氏伝 has Confucius quote them as a saying written down of old; the Japanese dictionaries give the Analects as the source of the phrase.

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

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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