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.
一隅を照らす
ichigū o terasu
Light Up Your Own Corner
Light up one corner: the Tendai school explains the corner as one's own post.
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 Tendai school explains the corner as one's own post.
照らす is to light, to shine on. 一隅 is one corner, a nook. The Tendai school's English says Ichigu means "where you are", not literally a corner.
The passage that holds the line asks what the treasure of a nation is, and answers: the mind that seeks the Way. It quotes the ancients: ten pearls an inch across are not the treasure of the nation; to light one corner, this is the treasure of the nation. A sage of old, it goes on, called the one who can both act and speak the nation's treasure.
In English, Sources of Japanese Tradition (1958) has a person who casts his light over a part of the country. The Tendai school's own English has he who sheds his light over a corner of the country is the nation's treasure.
Four characters in the preface of the Tendai Lotus School's Regulations for Annual Students (天台法華宗年分学生式), which Saichō (最澄) presented to the court in 818; the printed texts read them 照于一隅, lighting one corner, and the Tendai school's movement founded in 1969 took 一隅を照らす as its motto; transcriptions of Saichō's autograph read the second character 千, and from 1969 scholars argued over whether he wrote 照千一隅, a compression of a Tang commentator's story of ministers who each guard a corner and light a thousand li.
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 一隅を照らす.
