Kosatsu or signboard warning villagers against the forbidden dangers of Christianity. Of cypress wood with sumi ink, and a hand-forged iron, hanging chain for suspension from a post or gate. Dated: Shotoku Gannen or the 1st Year of the Shotoku era (1711).

Centuries of rain and wind eroded the surface of the cypress. The harder lines of the wood grain stand out like ripples on a sand dune, testament to the softening effects of time. Black sumi ink protected the flowing lines of calligraphy, the surrounding wood worn away as if beautifully detailed by a master carver.

Few of these kosatsu survive, though once they stood guard over much of Japan. It quotes the law against Christianity, promises punishments for transgressors and rewards for any who report them.

Another example dated to 1682 is in collection of The Burke Library at the Union Theological Seminary, New York. That kosatsu survived without the beauty or grace of this example, merely a worn fragment of another age.

When we look at this signboard, we see the elegant, careful hand of an official long past. His calligraphy worn by the elements reads no more as an admonition against a religion. It speaks of the softening effects of time, mutability and evanescence.