Block · kaisho 楷書 · VB5J
Block or kaisho (楷書) styles are the most common and recognizable styles. Block styles are easily read and are noted for their angular form and their vertical and horizontal lines.
百戦錬磨
hyakusen renma
Tempered by a Hundred Battles
Tempered by many battles: seasoned and rich in experience.
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
百戦錬磨 (hyakusen renma) is, word for word, a hundred battles and their tempering. 百戦 is a hundred battles, or many battles, and 錬磨 is the tempering and polishing of an art or of learning.
The dictionary 字通 gives 錬 as metal worked with heat to drive out impurities, and 練 as silk thread heated to make it supple. 百戦錬磨 is one phrase written both ways, and Daijisen and the Nihon kokugo daijiten enter both. The scroll is written 錬.
The scholar Saitō Chikudō uses the phrase when he writes that Minamoto no Yoshiie's generalship came from his nature and was perfected after a hundred battles' tempering. Then he asks why such a man studied the military books with Ōe no Masafusa, who, he says, had never once held a weapon.
Chikudō answers that Yoshiie's going to learn was not self-belittling but self-respect. In Chikudō's account, Masafusa checked Yoshiie to bring him to completion; Yoshiie's retainers were angry, but Yoshiie received Masafusa with courtesy, listening to another with an empty heart.
Today the Japanese dictionary Daijisen gives the example a seasoned warrior. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, in its 1974 edition, renders a man so tempered as a veteran; an old-timer; an old campaigner.
Japanese kanbun of the late Edo period: the earliest known witnesses are a poem in 西村茂樹's manuscript 『文草』 (1842–47) and an essay by 齋藤竹堂 (1815–1852) on Minamoto no Yoshiie, written before his death in 1852 and printed in an 1877 anthology; the Nihon kokugo daijiten's first instance is 1941.
We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 百戦錬磨.
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
