Ugaki Kazushige (1868-1956) and Ryotaro Nakai (1887-1953) Calligraphy.
Forbearance and Stillness
Ugaki Kazushige (1868–1956)
Hanging Scroll, Ink on paper
This hanging scroll by General Ugaki Kazushige presents a parallel maxim concerning the relationship between restraint and strength, which may be translated:
One measure of forbearance can sustain a hundred acts of courage;
one measure of stillness can govern a hundred movements.
The inscription was written for a member of the Nitta family. Its meaning is especially appropriate to Time Well Wasted. Courage is not defined here as continuous action, nor is power equated with aggression. The first line proposes that the ability to endure and exercise restraint may support a hundred outward acts of bravery. The second goes further: a single state of inner stillness may bring a hundred movements under control.
The calligraphy makes this philosophy physically visible. Although the characters possess considerable weight, they are not overbearing. The brush moves deliberately through broad, rounded strokes, angular turns, dry passages, and slender vertical descents. Force is always present, but it is contained. The writing does not rush forward; it seems to settle into the paper.
The opening character “one” ( from right to left) is written as a short, heavy horizontal stroke. Beneath it, “forbearance” contracts into a darker and more complex structure. The character brings together the blade above and the heart below, making the idea of endurance almost bodily: pressure is felt, but it is held within. From this concentrated beginning, the remaining characters gradually unfold with greater openness and movement.
The character “courage” is not written with theatrical force. Its structure is light, angular, and controlled, suggesting that courage derives from discipline rather than display. At the end of the first column, “stillness” expands into one of the most commanding characters in the work. Its long central descent anchors the entire composition, visually enacting the power attributed to stillness in the inscription.
The final character “movement” is broad but firmly contained. It does not explode outward. Instead, its intersecting strokes are brought into a concentrated structure and held in equilibrium. The calligraphic sequence therefore proceeds from restraint to courage, and from stillness to movement, without ever losing its internal composure.
Ugaki’s brushwork possesses a pronounced epigraphic quality—the visual resonance associated with inscriptions carved into bronze and stone. Certain strokes are blunt and weighty, their edges slightly roughened by the resistance of the paper. Others narrow suddenly into dry, broken lines through which the white ground becomes visible. These irregularities give the writing an aged, weathered dignity.
This “metal-and-stone” character does not make the calligraphy harsh. On the contrary, its firmness is moderated by rounded movement, generous spacing, and the changing moisture of the brush. Monumentality is joined with breath. The characters remain structurally strong, yet the sequence as a whole carries an atmosphere of calm.
Ugaki Kazushige was one of the most influential military and political figures of modern Japan. After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and Army Staff College, he rose to the rank of general and served repeatedly as Minister of the Army. During his first tenure, he implemented the military reorganization known as the Ugaki Disarmament, which abolished four army divisions while redirecting resources toward modernization. He subsequently served as Governor-General of Korea.
His historical record is complex and cannot be reduced to that of a simple “peace figure.” He was deeply embedded in the military and colonial institutions of imperial Japan and was implicated in the political maneuvering surrounding the March Incident of 1931. Yet he also came into conflict with increasingly radical elements within the army. In 1937, after receiving the imperial mandate to form a cabinet, he was unable to do so because the army refused to provide a serving officer as Minister of the Army.¹
In 1938, Ugaki served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Colonial Affairs in the first Konoe cabinet. During his brief tenure, he sought negotiations intended to end the war in China, but resigned when his efforts encountered opposition from the military and other forces within the government.¹ After the Second World War, he was removed from public office but was not indicted before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Following the lifting of the purge, he was elected to the House of Councillors in 1953 and served until his death in 1956.²
The inscription acquires additional resonance when considered against this turbulent history. Its praise of forbearance and stillness does not come from a monk who had withdrawn from political life, but from a soldier and statesman who had spent decades within structures of military and governmental power. “Stillness” here is not passivity. It is the ability to remain composed amid competing movements, to contain force until action becomes necessary, and to resist being carried away by the momentum of events.
This is also one of the fundamental qualities of East Asian ink art. A work of calligraphy may be created through bodily movement, yet its ultimate effect can be one of profound quiet. The viewer follows the pressure, speed, hesitation, and release of the brush, but gradually becomes still before them. Movement is preserved in ink; stillness is produced in the mind.
Within Time Well Wasted, this work therefore offers an important counterpart to Nantenbo’s Every Day Is a Good Day and Okada Keisuke’s monumental calligraphy. Nantenbō returns the viewer to the present day; Okada reveals authority disciplined by composure; Ugaki gives the relationship between stillness and strength its clearest verbal form. One moment of quiet may contain a hundred movements, just as one calligraphic line may preserve the concentrated energy of an entire body.
Inscribed “For Mr. Nitta” and signed “Written by Kazushige” . The seals read “Pure Energy through a Thousand Autumns” , “Ugaki Kazushige” , and “Fisherman-Historian of Reed Waters” .
Image: 37 3/4 × 13 inches (95.9 × 33 cm).
Scroll: 74 1/8 × 17 1/4 inches (188.3 × 43.8 cm).
References
- National Diet Library, Japan. “Ugaki Kazushige.” Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures.
- National Diet Library, Japan. “The Ugaki Kazushige Papers.” Research Navi.
Reflections on Fifteen Years of War
Nakai Ryotaro (1887–1953)
Hanging Scroll, Ink on Paper
The inscription may be translated:
For fifteen years, we fought with all our strength;
yet the winds of war turned, and the battle was lost.
My deepest concern was only for the preservation of the national polity.
I am left with the bitter regret of having failed to protect it;
I would sharpen a sword, but not one remains.
This calligraphy by Lieutenant-General Nakai Ryotaro reflects upon fifteen years of warfare, defeat, and lingering concern for the preservation of Japan’s kokutai, or national polity. Written several years after Japan’s surrender, the inscription is charged with frustration, grief, and unresolved martial spirit. Its final image—a soldier wishing to sharpen a sword when no sword remains—expresses both helplessness and an inability to relinquish the mentality of war.
Unlike the calm authority of Okada Keisuke (1868–1952) or the disciplined stillness of Ugaki Kazushige (1868–1956), Nakai’s brushwork is visibly fierce. The characters lean, collide, and change direction abruptly. Heavy strokes are followed by sharp hooks and exposed dry-brush trails, while the spacing between characters is irregular and compressed. The writing seems driven forward by emotional pressure.
Its force is not simply heroic. There is also bitterness and a distinct sense of violence in the brush. Pointed endings, sudden turns, and restless vertical movement convey the blood and temper of a professional soldier confronting defeat. Rather than concealing agitation beneath formal discipline, Nakai allows it to remain visible on the paper.
Nakai served as commanding officer of the Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, commander of the Fourteenth Infantry Brigade, chief of staff of the Eastern Defence Army, and commanding general of the 106th Division in China. He was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1941. His military experience gives the inscription the character of personal testimony rather than an abstract meditation on war.
Within Time Well Wasted, this scroll provides an important contrast. East Asian calligraphy can produce serenity, but it can also preserve anger, violence, disappointment, and historical trauma. Ink records not only the movement of the hand but also the emotional condition behind that movement. Here the brush does not calm the mind; it exposes a mind that has not yet found peace.
Dated 1949 and signed “Nakai Ryotaro”.
Image: 52 5/8 × 12 1/4 inches (133.7 × 31.1 cm).
Scroll: 78 × 16 1/8 inches (198.1 × 41 cm).
These works were featured in the special exhibition Time Well Wasted: Five Hundred Years of Japanese Ink Painting, held at Michaan’s Auctions from August 16 to 21, 2026, and are illustrated on page 139-147 of the accompanying book by Jingwei Zeng.
For condition report and additional photos, please contact the Asian Art Department.
