Semi-Cursive · gyōsho 行書 · VS5J
Semi-Cursive or gyōsho (行書) styles are a simplified and softer form of the kaisho styles. Gyōsho styles can be read by most Japanese.
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.
Master Takase creates this beautiful scroll when your order is placed, personally preparing the ink and brushing your art, which proudly bears her signature and seal. This is an original work of art.
Description
一隅を照らす (ichigū o terasu): light up one corner. 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.
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.
Delivery
Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days. It ships by USPS Priority Mail from Master Takase's studio in Washington State, boxed and ready to hang, with a printed page giving the art's English, romaji and Japanese.
Sending it as a gift? Add your message at checkout and we will include it.
Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $23. We ship worldwide, and any import charges for your country are shown at checkout before you pay.
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. Refund policy
About Our Scrolls
Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase brushes your scroll by hand when you order it. Each scroll bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.
The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with woven damask borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, and we have worked with them 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
