森羅万象 shinrabanshō All of Creation

森羅 is ranged without number, as trees stand in a forest: 森 (shin) is the mass of trees and 羅 (ra) here is a net or a row. 万象 is the ten thousand forms, every shape a thing can take: 万 (ban) is ten thousand and 象 (shō) here is a form or appearance.

The word is Zen's, from a Chinese line about the mind as a mirror in which the ten thousand forms appear reflected, and Dōgen wrote it in the Shōbōgenzō; it then left the monastery and became a plain Japanese word for the universe, used by novelists of the sum of things and by a prime minister who said he was in charge of shinra banshō, everything there is.

All of Creation is the word's oldest English, the sentence the first Japanese-English dictionaries gave for it, God created all things, and it fits because creation in English has long meant the world itself as much as the making of it.

森羅万象 is composed of the kanji 森 (read shin) meaning "forest; woods", 羅 (read ra) meaning "ranged in rows; spread out", 万 (read ban) meaning "ten thousand; 10,000", and 象 (read shō) meaning "form; phenomenon; appearance".

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 森羅万象.

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