Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

我事に於て後悔せず ware koto ni oite kōkaisezu Do not regret what you have done

In what I do, I do not regret: the sixth of the twenty-one first-person articles of Miyamoto Musashi's Dokkōdō, The Way Walked Alone.

by Master Eri Takase
Master Japanese Calligrapher 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.

A brushed scroll with Master Takase's brush on its rest, an inkstone and ink stick, a small iron water pot and red seal paste

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.

The roller at the foot of a hanging scrollThe corner where the paper, the gold band and the damask border meet
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.

$220

Explanation

我事に於て後悔せず is the sixth of twenty-one first-person articles Miyamoto Musashi brushed on one sheet of paper, and all but one turn on what he does not do or does not have. Its readers have called the sheet a vow to himself, a self-admonition, maxims and a confession. We read it as the school's chronicle names the sheet, a vow Musashi makes to himself.

The English title turns what Musashi says of himself into advice to the reader. The Japanese is his statement about himself: I regret nothing I do.

The English title is from Kenji Tokitsu's Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings of 2004, in Sherab Chödzin Kohn's translation.

Musashi brushed the twenty-one articles on one sheet, dated by its colophon and by the school's chronicle to the twelfth day of the fifth month of 1645, a week before his death; the prefecture that designated the sheet in 2003 holds it more natural to take that colophon, with its address to his pupil Terao Magonojō, as a later insertion, while the earliest study of the sheet as a text among the sources read here, Shitō Seiya's of 1967, reads it as Musashi's own, written on another day.

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 我事に於て後悔せず.