痛みは体から抜ける弱さ itami wa karada kara nukeru yowasa Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body

痛みは体から抜ける弱さ (itami wa karada kara nukeru yowasa): pain is weakness leaving the body, the Marine Corps drill instructor's line, in Master Takase's Japanese.

痛み (itami) is pain and は makes it the subject; 弱さ (yowasa) is weakness; between them 体から抜ける (karada kara nukeru) is leaves from the body, and the is goes unsaid, which is how Japanese writes a motto on a wall. The verb carries the whole image: 抜ける is what goes out of something it was inside, the air from a tire, the tiredness from a body, so the Japanese says exactly what the English does and reads as Japanese rather than as a translation.

The English was a favorite saying of drill instructors before the Corps made it a recruiting slogan, and every service has claimed it since; the meaning has never moved: the pain of training is the weakness going out of you, so welcome it.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 痛みは体から抜ける弱さ.

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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