Eri's Choice · VD5J
Eri's Choice is a design that does not keep strictly to one style; it is Master Takase's own artistic choice.
正射必中
seisha hitchū
The Correct Shot Surely Hits
Shoot correctly and the arrow surely hits.
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
正射必中 (seisha hitchū): shoot by the correct method and the arrow surely hits, a maxim of kyūdō, Japanese archery.
正射必中 is a maxim of kyūdō: an arrow shot by the correct method will surely hit. The All Nippon Kyudo Federation gives the phrase that meaning. The phrase also appears in the titles of business magazines. Whether it is for the archery hall or for a working life is yours.
A former pupil remembered a teacher who taught the maxim with its converse: a hit is not necessarily a correct shot. The kyūdō federation's manual of 1978 makes the same point. What is generally called a hit, it says, is possible without correct shooting. Before the shot, the maxim says where to look: at the form rather than the target.
A manual on holding the brush asks whether the art of writing is not akin to archery. It goes on to give a calligrapher's saying: the mind correct, the brush correct. The Edo lord 松浦静山 copied the passage into his talks on the sword. In English the maxim has been rendered true shooting, certain hitting, and written seishahichu and seisha hicchū.
A Japanese kyūdō maxim of the twentieth century, in the National Diet Library's full text from 1942 (正射正中, the other written form, from 1936), naming the teaching that the archery master 本多利実 (1836–1917) put in his own words and that the Record of Rites and 揚雄's 法言 state in Chinese.
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 正射必中.
