Seven-character Calligraphic Couplet in Seal Script

The recipient is Ozawa Bunshirō (1911–1978) from Gunma, Japan. A 1935 graduate of Tokyo Bunrika University, he was sent by the Foreign Ministry to Yenching University in 1937 to study history and philosophy. In August 1938, introduced by Zhang Cixi, he met Qi Baishi at artist’s home; Qi gifted calligraphy and painting to him, and that same year Ozawa became Qi’s student. He returned to Japan in 1940, taught at Tokyo Higher Normal School and Toyo University, received his doctorate in 1961, and published The Life of Master Qi Baishi in 1977.
This couplet in seal script, dated the first month of 1939, is dedicated to Ozawa. The verse comes from Qi’s poem on Xiao Qianzhong’s landscape. After 1937, Qi claimed “heart trouble” and stopped receiving visitors, but he made an exception for Ozawa, repeatedly gifting him paintings. This couplet stands as clear testament to their close bond.