Eri's Choice · VD4B
Eri's Choice is a design that does not keep strictly to one style; it is Master Takase's own artistic choice.
千秋万歳
senshūbanzai
A Thousand Years of Long Life
A thousand autumns and ten thousand years: an old wish for long life, two spans of time set side by side with no verb.
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
千秋万歳 (senshūbanzai): a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, a wish for long life.
A thousand autumns and ten thousand years: two spans of time set side by side with no verb, and the reader supplies the wish, may you live a thousand years. It is an old Chinese wish for long life, and two of the Han roof-tile inscriptions a Qing scholar listed carry it. In Japan the chronicle the dictionaries call the first official history has it in a minister's congratulation to the sovereign, and a later chronicle grants a family name with it, that the name should pass on without end. The same four characters, read senzumanzai, also name a New Year trade: performers who stood at the gates of houses, chanted words praising the household's fortune and long life, and were paid for it. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten says the trade seems to have been named from the words. The performers came to be called manzai, and the dictionaries trace the comic double act, also manzai, to them. For the wish, the Japanese dictionaries give the four characters as forever, and as a word that wishes someone long life.
千秋万歳 is composed of the words 千秋 (read senshū) meaning "thousand years, a thousand autumns" and 万歳 (read banzai) meaning "long life and prosperity".
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 千秋万歳.
