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.
千日の稽古を鍛とし万日の稽古を錬とす
sennichi no keiko o tan to shi, mannichi no keiko o ren to su
A Thousand Days to Forge, Ten Thousand to Refine
Miyamoto Musashi's line on hard training, from the Book of Five Rings: a thousand days of practice to forge, ten thousand to refine.
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
千日の稽古を鍛とし万日の稽古を錬とす (sennichi no keiko o tan to shi, mannichi no keiko o ren to su): Miyamoto Musashi's line on hard training in the Book of Five Rings, a thousand days of practice to forge and ten thousand to refine.
The line takes apart 鍛錬 (tanren), the word for hard training and for forging metal. It calls a thousand days of practice 鍛, smithing, and ten thousand days 錬, refining metal. The word was in use in both senses before the Book of Five Rings.
The copies of the book divide between 錬, refining metal, and 練, refining silk, as one research group transcribes them. Two prints of 1909 divide the same way, one setting the metal radical and one 練. The dictionaries enter 鍛錬 and 鍛練 as one word.
Later writers put the days into years, a thousand as about three and ten thousand as about thirty. Musashi's sentence counts days.
Ōyama Masutatsu gave his Kyokushin karate a form of the line by 1975: a thousand days make a beginner, ten thousand make mastery. By the 1980s the line had gained a third clause, that the bout is decided in an instant. In the National Diet Library's full text, searched to 2000, the clause is a politician's motto in 1981. In 1984 a baseball coach is in print with a form of the same pairing under his signature. In the copies read for the history, the line has two clauses, a thousand days and ten thousand days.
In English, Alexander Bennett gives forge and refine, William Scott Wilson temper and refine, and Kenji Tokitsu develop and polish. Victor Harris's translation of 1974 does not carry the line.
The closing sentence of the Water scroll of Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, written between 1643 and 1645 and handed to his pupil Terao Magonojō; Musashi's own manuscript is lost, and the line is read in the copies, the best of them a scroll Terao passed on in 1667.
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 千日の稽古を鍛とし万日の稽古を錬とす.
