Font Design · VD5J
Font Designs are Master Takase's unique designs. Often she will use her own style or a combination of fonts and, without a classification limit, create exactly the look she wants.
敬天愛人
keiten aijin
Revere Heaven, Love People
Revere Heaven and love people: a phrase often taken as one's motto.
Master Takase creates this beautiful scroll when your order is placed. Personally preparing the ink and brushing your art that proudly bears her signature and seal. This is an original work of art.
Description
敬天愛人 (keiten aijin): revere Heaven and love people, a phrase often taken as one's motto.
A dictionary of four-character phrases reads the phrase as a goal. Never neglect self-cultivation, it says, and reach the state of revering Heaven and loving people. The same dictionary says the phrase is known as the motto of Saigō Takamori. Whether you take it as a teacher's word or as your own motto is yours.
Saigō Takamori liked to write the phrase, and many of his pieces survive. One, written in 1875 at his students' request, hung for a long time in the dōjō of the 四方学舎. His sayings were published in 1890. In the Iwanami edition of 1939, one article says the way of learning takes revering Heaven and loving people as its aim. The same article says to begin and end with mastering oneself. Heaven loves others and me alike, a later article says, so with the heart that loves myself I love others.
A judo book of 1913 quoted Saigō's saying in its chapter on training the spirit. To follow the Way plainly and walk it, it says, is judo of the spirit. In 1908 Uchimura Kanzō wrote in English of Saigō: "Revere Heaven; love people," summed up all his views of life. The company Kyocera took the phrase as its motto.
Chinese: the four characters stand together in Chinese texts from 1087 as a virtue of rulers, and in the Jesuit Giulio Aleni's 職方外紀 (1623) for Europe's Christian charity; in Japan the oldest print found is Nakamura Masanao's afterword to the 西國立志編 (1870), and the phrase is remembered as Saigō Takamori's, from his brush (a piece of 1875) and his sayings (published 1890).
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 敬天愛人.
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 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
