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I posted a couple of items on calligraphy recently which attracted some mild interest. Reading through the SmartGo proofs of GoGoD's "Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei" (John Mifsud has outdone even Aleksey Grigoryevich Stakhanov and has it ready for publication as soon as I give the all-clear), I came across again the reference to Tamura Yasuhisa practising his calligraphy in preparation for the day he would become Honinbo Shusai. Coincidentally I also came across an example of his work new to me, and thought it would be good to post it here so that others can (I hope) admire it.
As is often the case, the sentiment is nothing special. It says "moving clouds" 行雲, which is probably to be taken as an abbreviation of 行雲流水, or "moving clouds and flowing water" (which in turn expresses the idea of "be of good cheer"). Despite the cliche, though, it's a good example of the vigour shown by the "little giant".
The signature is "Shusai" and the seals below that say "Honinbo XXI" and "Shusai".
