Vintage Japanese Lishu Calligraphy Scroll Han Stele Style Kakemono Art

The Script
This scroll is brushed in Lishu (隸書, clerical script), one of the oldest formal scripts in East Asian calligraphy, distinguished by its wide, horizontal character structure and the classical "silkworm head, swallow tail" (蠶頭燕尾) stroke technique — each stroke opening with a rounded, coiled press of the brush and closing with a flared, sweeping tail, evoking the monumental stone stele inscriptions of the Han dynasty.

The Text
The sixteen characters read: 里感孔懷，赴亶紀嗟 / 逆賤燔城，市特受命 ("Ri kan kōkai, futan kisa / Gyaku sen hanjō, shi toku jumei") — evoking, in the weighty language of ancient stele inscription, a scene of historical upheaval: profound sorrow and heartfelt concern recorded with solemn devotion, while treacherous rebels set the city walls ablaze, and the town bore the weight of its fate. The register and imagery are characteristic of classical Han stone-stele writing, in which scholars recorded moments of crisis and loss as moral testimony for future generations.

A Work in the Rinsho Tradition
The inscription closes with 清仁臨 ("Seijin rin") — "rendered by Seijin, after [an ancient model]." 臨 (rin) identifies this as a work of rinsho (臨書), the honored calligraphic practice of closely studying and re-brushing a classical stele or master's text to internalize its structure and spirit — not a mechanical copy, but a disciplined act of dialogue with the ancients, and a hallmark of serious calligraphic training.

Artist & Seals
Signed 清仁 (Seijin/Kiyohito), with a small seal marking the opening of the composition in the upper right, and two seals in the lower left — 清仁之印 ("seal of Seijin") and a second studio or art-name seal — authenticating the work.

Condition & Presentation
Brushed in sumi ink on paper, mounted in red silk-brocade borders with a floral pattern.