Eri's Choice · VD5J
Eri's Choice is a design that does not keep strictly to one style; it is Master Takase's own artistic choice.
諸行無常
shogyō mujō
All Things Are Impermanent
All that is made is impermanent: everything keeps changing, and nothing lasts unchanged.
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
諸行無常 (shogyō mujō): all that is made is impermanent; everything in the world keeps changing, arising and passing away, and nothing lasts unchanged.
The デジタル大辞泉 and the 日本国語大辞典 both call 諸行無常 one of the three seals, the root teachings of Buddhism. The verse that 諸行無常 opens ends in stillness: when arising and perishing have perished, their stilling is bliss. Whether you take it as the plain fact of change or as a word on the fleetingness of life is yours.
The 平家物語, the tale of the fall of the Taira, opens with the bell of the Jetavana monastery, whose voice has the ring of 諸行無常. The tale pairs the line with the law that the flourishing must decline. A study of 2009 searched the Taishō canon and found the two never paired: the pairing is the tale's own.
In the noh song 三井寺, a mother searching for her stolen child strikes a temple bell. As a book printed in 1714 quotes the song, the bell rings 諸行無常 at the first watch of night. At the last watch, at dawn and at sunset it rings the three lines that follow, one to each hour.
A line of Buddhist scripture: the first line of a four-line verse in the Chinese translations of the sutras, and one of the three seals of the teaching; in Japan the four characters are cut on the 薬師寺 Buddha's-footprint stone in 753, and in 985 源信 set the verse beside the bell of the dying that 道宣 described from a vision in 667.
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 諸行無常.
