不知最親切 fuchi mottomo shinsetsu Not Knowing is Most Intimate

Not Knowing is Most Intimate in Japanese is 不知最親切 which is read fuchi mottomo shinsetsu

不知最親切 (fuchi mottomo shinsetsu): not knowing is most intimate.

不知最親切 says that not knowing can bring you closer than anything else. The not-knowing it means is the kind you reach by letting everything go. A blank mind that simply does not know has missed it, and the koan's own commentary says so plainly. 親切 here keeps its older sense, close and right on the point, not the modern kind. Whether you hang it for your practice or for a season when you cannot see the way is yours.

The line is the master 桂琛's reply to the young monk 法眼文益, who, asked on his pilgrimage what the pilgrimage was about, had said he did not know; the exchange was first written up, with 法眼 waking at the line, in the 景德傳燈錄 of 1004, about fifty years after 法眼's death in 958.

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

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