A contemplative original Japanese shikishi (色紙) calligraphy artwork featuring one of the most famous verses from the Diamond Sutra (金剛経 / Kongōkyō), handwritten in bold black ink and signed by the calligrapher at the age of 77.
The inscription reads:
“All conditioned things are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; like dew or a flash of lightning.
Thus should they be contemplated.”
This celebrated Buddhist passage expresses the teaching of impermanence and non-attachment.
一切有為法 (issai ui-hō) refers to all things that arise through causes and conditions — everything in ordinary life that comes into being, changes, and eventually disappears.
Each image emphasizes how temporary, unstable, and impossible to possess permanently worldly phenomena are.
The final phrase, 応作如是観, means that one should see or contemplate things in this way. Rather than treating the verse as pessimistic, Buddhist teaching uses it as an invitation to see reality more clearly: because everything changes, we should avoid clinging too tightly to possessions, status, emotions, or even fixed ideas of ourselves.
The inscription at the left records the calligrapher as 77 years old, giving the piece an especially personal character. A verse on impermanence written late in life carries a particularly resonant meaning, turning the shikishi into both a work of calligraphy and a reflection on the passage of time.
Size: 24 x 27cm
