By Nature, Having Nothing

By Nature, Having Nothing in Japanese is 本来無一物 which is read honrai muichimotsu

本来無一物 (honrai muichimotsu): from the beginning, not one thing.

本来 says how things have stood all along; 無一物 is not a single thing, and in everyday Japanese also a man cleaned out. The line is the third of the verse that, in the Platform Sutra's story of itself, won Huineng the Sixth Patriarch's robe: awakening has no tree, the bright mirror no stand; from the beginning not one thing, where could dust settle?

The oldest text to carry these five characters is a Chan history of 952; the sutra's received text has them from 1291, and Dōgen quoted the verse in the 1240s. The dictionaries end where a Japanese reader's ear does: since all things are empty from the beginning, there is not one thing to cling to.

Philology of 本来無一物

The scroll is completed within 1–3 business days and is shipped from Master Takase's studio in Washington State by USPS Priority Mail. It arrives ready to display.

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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

Master Takase personally brushes your Japanese scroll when you order. Each scroll proudly bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.

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.