Semi-Cursive · gyōsho 行書 · VS3C
Semi-Cursive or gyōsho (行書) styles are a simplified and softer form of the kaisho styles. Gyōsho styles can be read by most Japanese.
戦氣
senki
Spirit of Battle
The spirit of battle, the word that heads a hanging scroll in Miyamoto Musashi's hand.
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
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 chooses these two characters should know both halves: what the word says, and what Musashi wrote beneath it.
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.
戦氣 is a literary word of Chinese origin, and the Japanese dictionaries we checked do not list it. In Musashi's hanging scroll the two characters stand large at the 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 Edo period, the 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.
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 戦氣.
