不動心 fudōshin Steadfast

不 is not, 動 is move, and 心 is the heart, the mind and the spirit in one word. What the word names is a mind free to go anywhere and stuck nowhere, and the texts that explain it take the trouble to say so. Yagyū Munenori, in his sword manual, puts it plainly: fudōshin is being just as you always are, and when something comes at your eyes you blink; trying not to move is itself having moved, and the man who does not blink is the one who has been rattled.

Takuan's famous letter to him uses a sister word, 不動智, immovable wisdom, and adds that it does not mean being insentient like a stone or a tree. It is at home in the Confucian classics, the Buddhist sutras and the dōjō, where it means a cool head under fire. A Japanese philosophy dictionary of 1905 made it a headword for the Stoics' apatheia, living undisturbed.

Steadfast is a better English for it than immovable, because a person can be steadfast at a run. It fits a sensei, and it fits someone who has been through something and did not bend, which are two different gifts.

不動心 is composed of the kanji 不 (read fu) meaning "not", 動 (read dō) meaning "move", and 心 (read shin) meaning "heart; mind; spirit".

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

Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.

Your purchase includes a personal-use license: use the design as a tattoo reference, frame it, engrave it, print it for yourself, or make it into a gift. For more information see Licensing, which also covers commercial-use options that may be purchased separately.

Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.

If you need your design again later, ask us for it and we will send it.