H3018 Haiku by Ryota – They spoke no words …
by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

They spoke no words.
The visitor, the host,
And the white chrysanthemum. ^[1]

mono iwazu kyaku to teishu to shiragiku to	ものいはず 客と亭主と 白菊と
ryouta	蓼太

One can imagine this as a setting for a tea ceremony – the host and the guest appreciate the white chrysanthemums in its place of honor. Miyamori writes, “Both the host and the guest who is invited to view the white chrysanthemums are smitten by their beauty and gazing at them speechless. It is quite interesting that ‘white chrysanthemums’ are imagined to be silent as well as ‘host and ‘guest’.”^[2]

Haiku by Ryota – VC6A Japanese Scroll 12″ W x 43″ H $180	Haiku by Ryota – VD6A Japanese Scroll 12″ W x 43″ H $180	Haiku by Ryota – VS5A Japanese Scroll 12″ W x 43″ H $180	Haiku by Ryota – VS5B Japanese Scroll 12″ W x 43″ H $180

R. H. Blyth suggests the translation:

They spoke no word,The host, the guest,And the white chrysanthemum. ^[3]

Asataro Miyamori suggests the translation:

They spoke not: host and guest
And white chrysanthemums. ^[4]

Harold G. Henderson suggests the translation:

From them no words come:
the guest, the host, the white
chrysanthemum.^[5]

Japanese Haiku Designs by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

These original, hand-lettered designs are perfect for personal and commercial use. For personal use the Adobe PDF designs are ideally suited for arts and crafts such as quilting, stained-glass, sewing – there is no limit to their uses. They are also perfect for tattoos and come with the line art that your tattoo artist will need to ink the design – they don’t even have to know Japanese! Just print the design and you have all you need – and the designs are high-resolution images that can be easily resized. Personal use designs start at $14.95.

Commercial use designs come in three size (72, 300, and 600 dpi JPG). The lower resolution is suitable for images used on websites. The higher resolutions are suitable for all print illustrations such as for CD covers, books, magazines, and advertisements. These designs are subject to a generous  licensing agreement. Prices start from $34.95.

NEW! We are proud to offer hand-lettered scrolls based on these designs.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.

StockKanji.comOriginal Japanese Haiku Designs by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

VC6A – Cursive	VD3A – Cursive Design	VD5A – Cursive Design	VD6A – Cursive
VS5A – Semi-Cursive	VS5B – Semi-Cursive

Calligraphy Notes:

1) Students of Japanese know that the grammatical particle “は” is written using the hiragana for “ha” though it is always pronounced “wa” (“wa” is written in hiragana as “わ“). This is a remnant from a time when “は” could be read as “wa“. In these designs the usage at the time of the poet is used so instead of the modern いわず (iwazu), it uses いはず (though it is still read iwazu).

Translation Notes:

1) もの (mono) – meaning “something”.

2) いはず (iwazu) – not spoken. Negative of the verb 言う (iu) meaning “to say; to speak”;

ものいはず thus becomes “nothing was spoken”.

3) 客 (kyaku) – meaning “visitor; guest”.

4) と (to) – meaning “and”. Henderson writes, “In any obvious series a to may be omitted. But it cannot be omitted if it is desired to emphasize that two or three or more things are on an absolute equality.” ^[6]And he goes on to give this haiku by Ryota as a prime example.

5) 亭主 (teishu) – meaning “master; lord; host”.

6) と (to) – see (4) above.

7) 白菊 (shiragiku) – meaning “white chrysanthemum”.

8) と (to) – see (4) above.

Recommended Reading:

References:

^[1] Translation by Timothy L. Jackowski, Takase Studios, LLC.

^[2] Miyamori, Asataro (1932). An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern. Tokyo: Maruzen Company, Ltd. 502.

^[3] Blyth, R. H. (1982) Haiku, Volume Four: Autumn-Winter. Tokyo. The Hokuseido Press. 1120.

^[4] Miyamori, Asataro (1932). An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern. Tokyo: Maruzen Company, Ltd. 502.

^[5] Henderson, Harold G. (1958) An Introduction to Haiku. United States of America. Doubleday Anchor Books. 189.

^[6] Henderson, Harold G. (1958) An Introduction to Haiku. United States of America. Doubleday Anchor Books. 119.

Related Sites:

Haiku of Kobayashi Issa – An archive of over 9000 Kobayashi Issa haiku and translations and insightful commentaries.

Jeffrey’s Japanese <-> English Dictionary – This is an independent dictionary based on the Edict data maintained by Dr. Jim Breen of Monash University.

Haiku Source – A Selected Collection of Japanese Haiku – Includes a few English translations

Wikipedia – Haiku – Overview of Haiku including brief biographies of Japan’s most influential poets

Copyrights are retained by the original authors and used here under the Fair Use Doctrine.
We encourage you to support the authors, as we have, by purchasing the referenced works.