The Sword That Splits a Hair
Sold – no longer available
This piece was a handmade one-of-a-kind work. It cannot be reordered and will never exist in this form again. The page stays online as part of our archive.
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Details about the sold piece
- Height 134 cm
- Width 70 cm
- Item Type Kakemono
- Jikusaki Wood
- Material Honshi Paper
- Period of Creation Shôwa (1926–1989)
- Technique Hand-Painted
- Unique Work Yes
No longer available
Description
With a few powerful brushstrokes, a calligraphy of remarkable dynamism unfolds on the cream-colored paper. The black ink characters appear to have been written in a single flow, broad, rich strokes alternating with thin, attenuated lines in which the individual bristles of the brush remain visible. Two red seals set quiet accents beside the energetic script.
The characters carry the meaning "The Sword That Splits a Hair" – an image for sharpness, clarity, and incorruptible precision, as it is frequently used in the tradition of the martial arts and of Zen. Whoever regards the hanging scroll senses, in the force of the brushwork, something of this resolve conjured up in the characters.
The work, dating from the Shôwa period, is written on paper, fitted with roller rods of wood, and mounted in the classical manner as a kakemono. As a hand-written unique work by a Japanese calligrapher, it is suited both to collectors of East Asian calligraphy and to lovers of restrained, powerful spatial art.
