初心 shoshin Beginner's Mind

Beginner's Mind in Japanese is 初心 which is read shoshin

初心 (shoshin): the beginner's mind.

The beginner's mind is the learner's state, eager and unpracticed. The word is older than the maxim it is best known from. Japanese dictionaries record four senses of it, and three of them matter here. The oldest in Japanese writing is the Buddhist sense, the first arising of the mind that seeks awakening. Next is the resolve a person first formed. Zeami's is the state of one who has just begun an art. He used the word in his own treatises before he closed one with the rule that it must not be forgotten. Which of those you hang it for, the freshness of the learner or the resolve you began with, is yours.

The Japanese word shoshin meaning "Beginner's Mind" is composed of the kanji 初 (read sho) meaning "first time; beginning" and 心 (read shin) meaning "heart; mind; spirit".

The word came to Japan with the Buddhist scriptures, where a sutra translated in the early fifth century asks whether awakening is reached with the first mind or the later one; its sense of a learner's state is in Japanese writing by about 1211, and English took it up as "beginner's mind" from Suzuki Shunryū's talks at the San Francisco Zen Center, in print by 1967.

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

Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days. It ships by USPS Priority Mail from Master Takase's studio in Washington State, boxed and ready to hang, with a printed page giving the art's English, romaji and Japanese.

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Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase brushes your scroll by hand when you order it. Each scroll bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.

The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with real silk borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by Sankō (株式会社三幸) in Gifu prefecture, which has been making high quality scrolls since 1947, and we have worked with Sankō for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase