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See also: Selections of just Japanese Kanji Calligraphy
1. The Way of Five Pecks of Rice
4. Scarecrow
7. Wine
8. Life Energy / Spiritual Energy
9. Honda
10. Tian / Tien
11. Beer
12. Milan
米海兵隊 is the Japanese way to write “United States Marine Corps” or simply “U.S. Marines.”
Breaking down each Kanji, this means:
“rice (American) ocean/sea soldiers/army/military corps/regiment/group.”
This title will only make sense in Japanese, it is not the same in Chinese! Make sure you know your audience before ordering a custom wall scroll.
If you are wondering about rice, America is known as “rice country” or “rice kingdom” when literally translated. The Kanji for rice is often used as an abbreviation in front of words (like a sub-adjective) to make something “American.” Americans say “rice burner” for a Japanese car and “rice rocket” for a Japanese motorcycle. If you did the same in Japanese, it would have the opposite meaning.
Note: I have not verified this but I’ve found this title used for U.S. Marines in Korean articles, so it’s most likely a normal Korean term as well (but only in Korean Hanja).
See Also: Marine Corps | Navy | Army | Art of War | Warrior | Military
酒 is the Chinese character, Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji which means alcohol.
This can refer to wine (esp. rice wine), liquor, spirits, sake, or to alcoholic beverages in general.
In the west, we tend to say “sake” to mean Japanese rice wine, however, this character is a little ambiguous in Japanese. It literally just means alcohol and is often pronounced “shu” in Japanese. Specifically, in Japanese, you might want to ask for “seishu” or 清酒 to get the sake that you are used to in the west. Seishu literally means “clear alcohol.”
アメリカン拳法 is the most common name for American Kenpo or American Kempo in Japanese.
You may also see this as アメリカ拳法 (dropping the “ン” or “N” sound from American) or 米国拳法 (uses the older Japanese name for America as “Rice Country” along with Kenpō).
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Katakana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
Do not bow down for the sake of five pecks of rice
不为五斗米折腰 is a Chinese idiom/proverb that speaks of being above bribes and not losing face or honor for short-term gain.
Some may also translate the perceived meaning as “high-hearted” or “integrity beyond reproach.”
The more literal meaning is “Do not bow down for the sake of five pecks of rice.”
葡萄酒 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for wine.
Very specifically, this is for grape wine (an important distinction in Asia where most wines were rice-based until western influences came into play).
The first word, 葡萄 literally means grape (or grapevine), and 酒 means alcohol (generic term for alcohol, sake, wine, liquor).
Chi Energy: Essence of Life / Energy Flow
This 氣 energy flow is a fundamental concept of traditional Asian culture.
氣 is romanized as “Qi” or “Chi” in Chinese, “Gi” in Korean, and “Ki” in Japanese.
Chi is believed to be part of everything that exists, as in “life force” or “spiritual energy.” It is most often translated as “energy flow” or literally as “air” or “breath.” Some people will simply translate this as “spirit,” but you must consider the kind of spirit we're talking about. I think this is weighted more toward energy than spirit.
The character itself is a representation of steam (or breath) rising from rice. To clarify, the character for rice looks like this:
Steam was apparently seen as visual evidence of the release of “life energy” when this concept was first developed. The Qi / Chi / Ki character is still used in compound words to mean steam or vapor.
The etymology of this character is a bit complicated. It's suggested that the first form of this character from bronze script (about 2500 years ago) looked like these samples:
However, it was easy to confuse this with the character for the number three. So the rice radical was added by 221 B.C. (the exact time of this change is debated). This first version with the rice radical looks like this:
The idea of Qi / Chi / Ki is really a philosophical concept. It's often used to refer to the “flow” of metaphysical energy that sustains living beings. Yet there is much debate that has continued for thousands of years as to whether Qi / Chi / Ki is pure energy or consists partially or fully of matter.
You can also see the character for Qi / Chi / Ki in common compound words such as Tai Chi / Tai Qi, Aikido, Reiki, and Qi Gong / Chi Kung.
In the modern Japanese Kanji, the rice radical has been changed into two strokes that form an X.
The original and traditional Chinese form is still understood in Japanese, but we can also offer that modern Kanji form in our custom calligraphy. If you want this Japanese Kanji, please click on the character to the right instead of the “Select and Customize” button above.
More language notes: This is pronounced like “chee” in Mandarin Chinese, and like “key” in Japanese.
This is also the same way to write this in Korean Hanja where it is Romanized as “gi” and pronounced like “gee” but with a real G-sound, not a J-sound.
Though Vietnamese no longer use Chinese characters in their daily language, this character is still widely known in Vietnam.
See Also: Energy | Life Force | Vitality | Life | Birth | Soul
本田 is the Japanese name, Honda, which is both a surname and the car company.
However, the full name of the Honda Motor Corporation is 本田技研工業株式会社. The short version is 本田技研工業. The two Kanji, 本田, would be the shortest way to write Honda, but it can be confused with other Honda names (surnames and given names).
本田 also be pronounced Motoda, Honden, or Honta (various surnames in Japan written the same way, but pronounced differently).
Technically, the word honda means rice paddy.
This Chinese, Korean, and Japanese character means field or farm.
Most of the time, this refers to a rice field.
However, this is very commonly used as a surname that romanizes from Mandarin as Tian, and from Cantonese and Taiwanese, it's romanized as Tien.
In Japanese, it can be the surname Yanakida, Tatsuru, or Tazaki. There are other romanizations used for Japanese surnames for this character. When just a field, it is pronounced “den” in Japanese.
啤酒 means beer in Chinese.
This can refer to virtually any fermented grain-based alcoholic beverage that has bubbles. So this includes all kinds of ales and lagers.
In China, the grains used for beer sometimes include rice. But even in Chinese beer, the concept is the same - beer must be made with hops and yeast.
Beer was the third word I learned in Chinese, and I've toured 3 different breweries in China, Tsing Tao, Lao Shan, and Yanjing. I've done my research on this calligraphy entry!
米蘭 is the transliteration to Mandarin Chinese for the Latin name Milan.
This also happens to be the Chinese name for the city Milan or Milano in Italy.
米蘭 are only used for their phonetic properties but this would mean “rice orchid.” But any Chinese person will know that you are talking about either the Italian city or a person named Milan (and will not take the literal meaning).
Though technically, you are supposed to use Katakana instead of Kanji, this also sounds like Milan in Japanese. The pronunciation was borrowed from Chinese when Japan borrowed Chinese characters in the 5th century.
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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
The Way of Five Pecks of Rice | 五斗米道 | gotobeidou / gotobeido | wǔ dǒu mǐ dào wu3 dou3 mi3 dao4 wu dou mi dao wudoumidao | wu tou mi tao wutoumitao |
United States Marine Corps | 米海兵隊 | bei kai hei tai beikaiheitai | ||
Wine Alcohol Sake | 酒 | sake / shu | jiǔ / jiu3 / jiu | chiu |
Scarecrow | 稻草人 | dào cǎo rén dao4 cao3 ren2 dao cao ren daocaoren | tao ts`ao jen taotsaojen tao tsao jen |
|
American Kenpo | アメリカン拳法 | amerikan kenpou amerikankenpou amerikan kenpo | ||
Having High Principles | 不為五斗米折腰 不为五斗米折腰 | bù wèi wǔ dǒu mǐ zhé yāo bu4 wei4 wu3 dou3 mi3 zhe2 yao1 bu wei wu dou mi zhe yao buweiwudoumizheyao | pu wei wu tou mi che yao puweiwutoumicheyao |
|
Wine | 葡萄酒 | bu dou shu / bu dou sake budoushu / budousake bu do shu / bu do sake | pú tao jiǔ pu2 tao5 jiu3 pu tao jiu putaojiu | p`u t`ao chiu putaochiu pu tao chiu |
Life Energy Spiritual Energy | 氣 气 / 気 | ki | qì / qi4 / qi | ch`i / chi |
Honda | 本田 | honden | běn tián / ben3 tian2 / ben tian / bentian | pen t`ien / pentien / pen tien |
Tian Tien | 田 | den | tián / tian2 / tian | t`ien / tien |
Beer | 啤酒 | pí jiǔ / pi2 jiu3 / pi jiu / pijiu | p`i chiu / pichiu / pi chiu | |
Milan | 米蘭 米兰 | mi ran / miran | mǐ lán / mi3 lan2 / mi lan / milan | |
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |
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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Rice Kanji Kanji, Rice Kanji Characters, Rice Kanji in Mandarin Chinese, Rice Kanji Characters, Rice Kanji in Chinese Writing, Rice Kanji in Japanese Writing, Rice Kanji in Asian Writing, Rice Kanji Ideograms, Chinese Rice Kanji symbols, Rice Kanji Hieroglyphics, Rice Kanji Glyphs, Rice Kanji in Chinese Letters, Rice Kanji Hanzi, Rice Kanji in Japanese Kanji, Rice Kanji Pictograms, Rice Kanji in the Chinese Written-Language, or Rice Kanji in the Japanese Written-Language.