Custom Prosperity Chinese & Japanese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

This is a common phrase to hear around the time of Chinese New Years. Directly translated character by character it means, "Year Year Have Surplus". A more natural English translation including the deeper meaning would be "Every Year may you Have Abundance in your life".

On a side note, this phrase often goes with a gift of something related to fish. This is because the last character "yu" which means surplus or abundance has exactly the same pronunciation in Mandarin as the word for "fish".

This is also one of the most common titles for traditional paintings that feature koi fish.

In China, this phrase might make an odd wall scroll - a customer asked special for this common phrase which is why it appears here. See my other entry for abundance if you want a wall scroll that will seem more comfortable in Chinese culture.

Note: This can be pronounced in Korean, but it's not a commonly-used term.

See Also...  Good Fortune

This is a strong way to say "Prosperity and Abundance".

The characters shown here present and reinforce the ideas of being prosperous, a booming economy, well-to-do, well-off, wealth, riches and opulence.

This is the ancient / traditional Chinese way to write this, but most Japanese can fully read and understand it. It's also the correct form of old Korean Hanja (though few Koreans of the current generation will be able to read this).

See Also...  Good Fortune

This means "prosperous" if used in regards to a person.

However, when used in reference to a whole country, it can mean "booming economy".

This is the traditional Chinese, ancient Japanese, and ancient Korean version.

This is the same "prosperity" as our traditional Chinese version, except for a slight change in the way the second character is written (it's the Japanese Kanji deviation from the original/ancient Chinese form). Chinese people will still be able to read this, though you should consider this to be the Japanese form (better if your audience is Japanese).

Sometimes the Kanji form shown to the right is used in Japanese. It will depend on the mood of the calligrapher, as to which form you may receive. If you have a preference, please let us know at the time of your order.

Currently, this character is sometimes used in China to mean "prosperity".
This character once meant the "official's salary" in old feudal China and Korea (obviously, the officials lived well, so you can imagine how this was associated with the idea of prosperity).

Not used in Korea or Japan for prosperity - only in Korean historical documents for "salary". In old Japanese, this means "fief", "allowance", "pension", "grant" and sometimes "happiness" depending on context. It's very obscure in modern Japanese.

We have other entries for prosperity that are better-suited for a wall scroll. This entry just addresses "the coffee cup issue" where this character has been used on coffee cups and tee-shirts in a naive manner.
In other words: Don't order this!

This means "To bring flourishing peace and security to the world (our current era)".

It's really a wish that a new door leading to peace and prosperity could be opened to mankind.

This kind of prosperity applies to a business. Something great to hang behind your desk if you are a small or large business owner. Doing so says that you either are a successful business, or you wish success and prosperity for your business.

A good meaning in China, but a little antiquated in Japanese.