Commissioned Aikidou Kakejiku or Wallscroll

This scroll was commissioned for an Aikidou trainer in the Southern US. It says in English, Through the virtue of humble training, understanding of Aiki is acquired naturally.
I had a difficult time obtaining the original Japanese saying, if there is an original quote accorded to Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikidou. So I received help on the translation from two sources, my wife and another gentleman. It reads in Japanese, 謙虚に鍛錬をつめば合気の悟りは自ずと得られる　(Kenkyo ni tanren wo tsumeba, aiki no satori wa onozu to erareru.)
Just for informations sake, there were 4 iterations provided by Mr. Akamatsu.  Then my wife took the translations, and melded them into syllabic form that would work for calligraphy and the lines provided. It is written in the Gyousho, semi-cursive style by Ryugyoku Yamada.

The scroll was made by myself, it is a three step style scroll called sandan hyougu. The ichimonji is a a wave pattern with gold and silver. The chuumawashi, intermediate cloth is a burnt orange, with large ivy karakusa (arabesque) pattern. This cloth is a pure silk (Shouken) The Ten/Chi is a dried reed color shike silk. It is completed with a jikusaki that has a red lacquer, and machined edge, and the hanging string is a light green with gold (kinka).

Aikidou Scroll in Sandan Hyougu (3 Step) Style

This scroll was ordered from an Aikidouka (practitioner of Aikidou) in the Midwest. If you would like to order a custom designed scroll e-mail me at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com or go to www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com. Initially he called me on the phone and we had a lengthy discussion. I asked questions of what the décor in the room would be and colors of the wall so that we could design a scroll that would work in the room it was to be hung. When he said he wanted something in shades of brown, I thought that this large karakusa silk would be a good match for what he wanted. The next day I sent him the some pictures of recently purchased silks from a supplier in Japan, but I recommended this specific cloth along with the Antique cloth for the Ten and Chi. In my mind I had the idea of the concept of Lighter (Shihon or paper artwork), Darker (Gold Ichimonji), Darkest (Brown Karakusa silk), back to Darker (Antique cloth), and finally back to lightest (ash wood colored Jikusaki, and a white with Blue fleck design Kake/Makihimo). We actually did not decide on the Jikusaki and Kakehimo until after the original design, but when I explained this pattern I think he saw the vision of what I envisioned for the scroll.

The customer wished to have the writing in the Kaisho style, but to meet the size requirement to attach the Ichimonji, I needed to cut the paper much smaller. I am very grateful to my wife for being such an experienced and skilled calligrapher to be able to write everything very balanced and always meet the customer needs.
Dimensions of the scroll given in the traditional Bun measurement, with approximations in centimeters and inches.

Kanji English Size in Bun CM Inches
天 Ten 115 348.5 13.72
上中廻し Ue Chuumawashi 52 157.5 6.2
上一文字 Ue Ichimonji 7.5 22.7 0.9

紙本の幅さ Artwork Width 56 169.7 6.7

紙本の長さ Artwork Length 87 263.6 10.4

柱 Pillars 12 36.4 1.4

下一文字 Shita Ichimonji 3.5 10.6 0.4

下中廻し Shita Chuumawashi 26 78.8 3.1

地 Chi 70 212.1 8.4

掛け軸の幅さ Scroll Width 80 242.4 9.5

掛け軸の長さ Scroll Length 353.5 1071.1 42.2