Eiwa Haiku Wallscroll英和俳句掛け軸

This customer wanted a kakejiku 掛け軸that would take a haiku俳句 created in English and translated into Japanese. To get the proper translation it was difficult to follow the 5-7-5 On criteria. However, to capture the true meaning of the poem, we felt it was important to utilize a rule called jiamari 字余りto provide for accurate meaning of the poem.

The shodou is written in three lines, which contradicts Wikipedia’s statement that haiku are written in a single line. Ryugyoku used creative license to indent the first character of each line to emphasize each individual line in the poem. It was written in the Gyousho style with the smaller brush called Hosofude. The poem reads:

真の愛は特別　Makoto no Ai wa Tokubetsu

時に降りきり　Toki ni Orikiri

人生を変える　Jinsei wo Kaeru

(Because this scroll is a gift we will not post the English translation until a later time.)

The scroll is made with a taupe cloth in the Maru Hyougu 丸表具style. I used the gold clouds on red-orange to correlate the above haiku with another Japanese expression. 女心は秋の空 Onnagokoro wa Aki no Sora. This phrase means a woman’s mind changes as quickly as the Autumn sky (at sunset).This captures the essence of the fleeting nature of love. The scroll is accented with a beautiful Black lacquer Jikusaki with a gold band painted around the end. The customer also ordered a beautiful Fuchin that complements the Kireji color of the wallscroll.

If you would like to order a custom scroll there are three ways to get started: 1. Go to my shopping site at www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com 2. Download my scroll design workbook from my website at www.customjapanesecalligraphy.com to read about the concepts behind kakejiku or wallscroll design. 3. E-mail to me directly at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com 

翌檜会 Asunarokai Scroll

This scroll was ordered from Greece. Asunaro is an idiomatic expression in Japanese which means, "Tomorrow, let's become Cypress Trees". Kai is a group, organization or meeting. Cypress tree wood is valued tremendously.

If you would like to order a custom scroll there are three ways to get started: 1. Go to my shopping site at www.shop.customjapanesecalligraphy.com 2. Download my scroll design workbook from my website at www.customjapanesecalligraphy.com to read about the concepts behind kakejiku or wallscroll design. 3. E-mail to me directly at sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com 

This scroll was made for an Iaido (Katana) school in Greece, but it would also work for a Bonsai club as well. The deep green of the kireji very much brings about the forest feel in standing under the trees you see in Japan. The red ichimonji just seems to make the scroll be very beautiful and large and accentuates the beauty of the Kaisho, block print style written by Ryugyoku.

If you would like to design your own personalized scroll, contact sales@customjapanesecalligraphy.com

2 of 3 Dragon Scroll

This is a scroll for a dojo in the US. They are using the writing as a meditative practice for practitioners to contemplate what they have learned and put them in a higher plane of thinking. The dragon was drawn once again by my talented artist that I rely on, Ren Adams.This is written in a gyousho style, and if you compare the Panther with this one, there should be some obvious similarities.


This is in the Maru Hyougu style and is on a taupe cloth. The decision on the cloth was very difficult. Some swatches of different fabrics was sent so they could not only compare it to the wall onto which it would hang, but also how the cloth would look with the entire design was necessary. This was a very difficult and complicated project, but was very satisfying.