戦氣 senki Spirit of Battle

Spirit of Battle in Japanese is 戦氣 which is read senki

戦氣 (senki): the spirit of battle, which Miyamoto Musashi made famous in a scroll he brushed in the early 1600s.

The will and momentum of battle, and something older: the air over a fight as a thing seen. A trained eye once read it for what it foretold. English hears Spirit of Battle as ardor, and the word reaches that, a fighter's will and an army's morale. The scroll it comes from shows the opposite: stillness that reflects, a cold stream carrying the moon. A person who hangs these two characters should know both halves: what the word says, and what Musashi wrote beneath it. Which they hang it for is theirs.

Master Takase writes 氣 in its traditional form, as Musashi did. She offers the word in block, semi-cursive and cursive script and in her own font designs.

It is a literary word, and in Japan it is known from the hanging scroll Miyamoto Musashi brushed. The two characters stand large at its head. Beneath them is a line of verse about a cold river carrying the moon, clear as a mirror. The verse is taken to express the state he reached with the sword. The scroll is kept in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto, and is a cultural property of the city.

戦氣 is composed of the kanji 戦 (read sen) meaning "war, battle" and 氣 (read ki) meaning "air, breath, spirit".

Miyamoto Musashi brushed the word in the early seventeenth century at the head of a hanging scroll, above a line by the Chinese poet Bai Juyi that Japan knew from the Wakan rōeishū.

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

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