地水火風空 chi sui ka fū kū Five Elements

Five Elements in Japanese is 地水火風空 which is read chi sui ka fū kū

地水火風空 (chi sui ka fū kū): earth, water, fire, wind, space.

The five are the 五大 (godai), the five great elements of Indian and Buddhist physics, of which everything is made; the first four are the old four, and the fifth, 空, was added to them as the place in which matter exists. It is space, not the sky the character means in ordinary Japanese, and not the Buddhist emptiness written with the same character.

The readings on the scroll are the Sino-Japanese ones; the everyday readings mizu, hi, kaze and sora are the characters' and not the doctrine's. The five-ring stupa, a familiar Japanese grave marker, is the five stacked from the earth up.

空 is void in a 1974 English translation of Musashi and space to the doctrine, and the five on this scroll carry both.

The five are a Buddhist doctrine from India; the earliest Japanese example of their name, 五大, that the 日本国語大辞典 gives is Kūkai's dedication of 821, and in 1645 Miyamoto Musashi named the five scrolls of his treatise on strategy for them.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 地水火風空.

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? Tell us when you order and we will include your message.

Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $22. 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

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