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日々是好日 nichinichi kore kōjitsu Every day is a good day

This is a philological study of the Zen phrase 日々是好日 (nichinichi kore kōjitsu). It spans more than a thousand years, from the Chinese master Yunmen (雲門, died 949) to today, and examines the question it answered, the commentators who warned against reading it as every day is nice, and how it became a Japanese household phrase.

Japanese Scroll of Every day is a good day (nichinichi kore kōjitsu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Every day is a good day (nichinichi kore kōjitsu)

Every day is a good day (nichinichi kore kōjitsu) on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

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Abstract

日々是好日, day after day, a good day, is the answer the Chinese Chan master 雲門文偃 (died 949) gave for his monks when he asked them for one phrase about the days to come and none of them spoke. The exchange is in his own record and became the sixth case of the 碧巌録 of 1125, where the commentator warns against hearing the line as every day is nice. In Japan the line is in Zen records from the fourteenth century on, the national dictionary's first Japanese citation is of 1426, and the Meiji lecture halls kept it; by the twentieth century it had become a household phrase for a good and peaceful life, day after day. It has three attested readings, kōjitsu in the dictionaries, kōnichi in the Zen hall, and hibi kore kōjitsu.

Overview

The sense. The line has two lives, and the witnesses show the second growing out of the first. In the Zen texts it is the answer to a question: I do not ask you about before the fifteenth; about after the fifteenth, bring me one phrase [1]. The commentators from 圜悟 in 1125 to 本高 in 1890 spend their breath keeping it from turning into a mood: it cuts off past and future at once, and whoever calls it every day a good day has, in 圜悟's words, no connection with it [2]; it is a line the master sold and bought himself, and a reader is not to be fooled by it [3]. Outside the hall it became exactly the mood. A Shin preacher of 1880 uses it to say that no day is unlucky [4]; the modern dictionaries define it as good, peaceful days going on, and one adds the moral, a resolve to live each day with care [5]. Both lives are real.

The words. 日日, nichinichi, is day after day, every day; the design writes it 日々 with the repeat mark, a modern convenience for the canon's doubled character, and the same word. 是, kore, is the copula, read これ in the Japanese reading of Chinese. 好日 is a good day, and 好 is good, fine, not only pleasant: a commentary of 1890 glosses the whole line in the vernacular as 昨日モ今日モヨヒ天氣ヂヤ, yesterday and today, fine weather, the day's weather standing for the day [3]. The reading is the one thing about the line a Japanese reader argues about, and three are attested. The Zen reading is nichinichi kore kōnichi: a lecture of 1934 prints it in katakana, ウンモンニチニチコウニチ [6], and the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 lists it beside the other [5]. The common reading is nichinichi kore kōjitsu: first in both modern dictionaries [5], and the reading of the 2018 film's title [7]. Hibi kore kōjitsu, with the native reading of the doubled character, is in both dictionaries as well [5].

The phrase in English. JMdict gives every day is a good day; enjoy every day, and marks it a proverb, with all four combinations of the readings [8]. What an English rendering has to keep is day after day, which is the doubled character, and good, which is plain.

The historical record

Tenth century. 雲門文偃, in his own record, the 雲門匡真禪師廣錄, the middle fascicle. The master addressed the assembly and, when no one answered, answered for them [1]:

示眾云：「十五日已前不問爾，十五日已後道將一句來。」代云：「日日是好日。」 He addressed the assembly: "I do not ask you about before the fifteenth; about after the fifteenth, bring me one phrase." Answering for them, he said: "Day after day, a good day."

The fifteenth is the middle of the month and the full moon; the 故事成語を知る辞典 takes it as the fifteenth of the seventh month, the day the summer retreat ends [5]. Either way the question is what a person says about the time that has not happened yet. 雲門 died in 949; his birth is not recorded, and a 1934 lecturer estimates 852 [6].

1125. The 碧巌録, case 6. 雪竇重顯 chose the exchange as the sixth of his hundred cases and wrote a verse on it; 圜悟克勤's lectures on the verses are the 碧巌録, and this is where Japanese readers met the line. 圜悟 on the answer: 此語通貫古今。從前至後。一時坐斷, this phrase runs through past and present; from before to after, it cuts everything off at once. Under the answer he writes one character, 收, gathered in. And on the verse, a warning against taking it as a mood: 喚作日日是好日得麼。且喜沒交涉, can you call this "every day a good day"? Happily, no connection [2].

1252. The 五燈會元, fascicle 15. The exchange in 雲門's chapter, 眾無對。自代曰。日日是好日, the assembly had no answer; he answered in their place; and four leaves on, a monk quoting the line back at another master with a second line grown onto it, 日日是好日。年年是好年, every day a good day, every year a good year [9].

Fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. The Japanese Zen libraries. The line is in the Japanese printings of the Chinese records, the 碧巌録 printed in 1400 [10] and 1677 [11] and the 五燈會元 in 1635 [12], and in the records of Japanese masters: 虎関師錬 in the fourteenth century, 徹翁 in 1435, and 東陽英朝's 宗門正灯録 in 1630 [13]. It was in every Japanese Zen library for five hundred years before it was a proverb.

1426. The 大燈国師語録, the record of the master known as 大燈国師, the first fascicle. The first Japanese citation the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives, and it quotes the passage [5]:

大底鼻孔向下垂。多年暦日不相干。所以道日日是好日。時時是好時。交頭結尾。別有生涯 For the most part the nose hangs downward, and the calendar's days have had nothing to do with it for years; so it is said, every day a good day, every hour a good hour; from head to tail there is another life to be lived.

1880. 野村淳清, 『帰命字訓勧誘録』, a Shin tract. Against choosing lucky days, the preacher says there is no difference between lucky and unlucky days, and goes on: 古語ニモ日々是好日トアリテ天道サマニ替リハナイ, the old saying has it, every day a good day, and the heavens do not change [4]. The line is already a 古語, an old saying, in the mouth of a preacher of another school.

1886. 白隠, 『槐安国語』, in a printed edition. The case, and the pair every year a good year, every day a good day [14].

1889. 東陽英朝 (ed.), 『禅林句集』, the Zen phrase book, in its 文光堂 printing. 日日是好日 in the five-character section, between 佛殿裏燒香 山門頭合掌, burning incense in the Buddha hall, joining palms at the mountain gate, and 風來樹點頭, the wind comes and the trees nod [15]. The neighbors carry source notes; this line carries none, which in that book means every reader knew where it was from.

1890. 本高, 『碧巌録耳林鈔』, a vernacular commentary. The trap, in the vernacular: 昨日モ今日モヨヒ天氣ヂヤト自賣リ自買レタ雲門ノ語ニダマサレルナ, "yesterday and today, fine weather": do not be fooled by a line 雲門 sold and bought himself; and then, for the other side, 世尊四十九年ノ說モ日々好日ヨリ外ノ說ハナカツタモノ, the Buddha's forty-nine years of preaching had no sermon outside "every day a good day" [3].

1895. 鳥尾得庵, 『禅林消息』. The case, and the question asked of it: 是レ正位カ是レ偏位カ, is this the absolute or the relative? [16]

1900. 正岡子規 (ed.), 『俳家全集』. A 自画賛, an inscription by the painter on a picture of Mount Fuji, carries the line [17].

1906. 大内青巒, 『碧巌集講話』, lectures on the 碧巌録. On 圜悟's one-character comment: 日々是好日の下に收とある只この一句に無始劫來未來永劫を皆收藏して, under "every day a good day" is written "gathered in": this one phrase gathers in the beginningless past and the endless future [18].

1910. 藤井乙男, 『諺語大辞典』. The standard proverb dictionary of its day has no entry for the line: on the leaf where it would stand, the headwords run from 日蓮宗ハ天台宗ノ蟲喰 to 日本ハ神國 with nothing between for it [19]. In 1910 the line was not yet counted a proverb.

1934. 井上秀天, 『碧巌録新講話』. 第六則雲門日日好日 ウンモンニチニチコウニチ: the case with its reading in katakana, kōnichi, the Zen hall's reading in print [6].

Today. デジタル大辞泉: 《「碧巌録」から》毎日毎日が無事でよい日であるということ, from the 碧巌録: that every single day is an uneventful, good day, with the reading ひびこれこうじつ beside it. 精選版 日本国語大辞典: 来る日も来る日も、楽しく平和なよい日が続く, day after day, pleasant and peaceful good days go on, with the readings こうじつ and こうにち and the 1426 citation. 故事成語を知る辞典 adds the moral, 一日一日を大切に生きる心構えをいう, it speaks of a resolve to live each day with care, tells the story of the question and the answer, and quotes 岡本かの子 in 1940 and 久保田万太郎 in 1953 [5]. 森下典子's essay of 2002 on twenty-five years of tea lessons took the line as its title, and the 2018 film made from it was released as 日日是好日, read にちにちこれこうじつ [5][7]. The house title, Every day is a good day, is the plain rendering.

What is not a source. The 碧巌録 is where Japan met the line, and the dictionaries cite it; the line is older, in 雲門's own record [1], and the 碧巌録 is its most famous address rather than its origin [2]. 年年是好年, every year a good year, is a second line that grew onto it in the Chinese records [9] and that 白隠 still quotes [14]; it is not part of the text brushed. The popular sense, a resolve to make each day good, is a reception, not a source.

A reading

The story is short and better than the moral. A tenth-century master asks his monks for one phrase about the days that have not come; nobody answers, and he answers for them, day after day, a good day. A twelfth-century commentator adds that if you hear this as every day is nice you have missed it, and a Japanese master says the calendar has had nothing to do with him for years. The line is an answer, and it belongs with its question: without the question it is a greeting, and with it it is a koan. The popular reading, that each day can be made good, is a twentieth-century reading, defensible as such, and it is the one the twelfth-century commentator warned against. The reading of the last two characters is a matter of place: kōjitsu in the dictionaries and the film, kōnichi in the Zen hall.

References

  1. 『雲門匡真禪師廣錄』卷中, Taishō vol. 47, no. 1988, p. 563b17–18, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T1988&juan=2
  2. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』卷一, 第六則, Taishō vol. 48, no. 2003, pp. 145c14, 146a29–b06 and 146c24–25, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2003&juan=1
  3. 本高『碧巌録耳林鈔』, 1890. National Diet Library pid 823482, scan 20. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823482/1/20
  4. 野村淳清『帰命字訓勧誘録』, 1880. National Diet Library pid 820245, scan 28. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/820245/1/28
  5. 「日日是好日」, デジタル大辞泉 · 精選版 日本国語大辞典 · 故事成語を知る辞典 · デジタル大辞泉プラス, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/日日是好日-592061
  6. 井上秀天『碧巌録新講話』, 1934. National Diet Library pid 1909179, scan 68. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1909179/1/68
  7. 「日日是好日 (映画)」, Wikipedia (Japanese). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日日是好日_(映画)
  8. JMdict (EDRDG), 「日々是好日」, at gokanji. https://new.gokanji.com/word/日々是好日
  9. 『五燈會元』卷十五, Xuzangjing vol. 80, no. 1565, pp. 305c10–11 and 309a13, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=X1565&juan=15
  10. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖録』, 1400 printing. National Diet Library pid 2543617. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543617
  11. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖録』, 1677 printing. National Diet Library pid 2559782. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2559782
  12. 『五燈會元』, 1635 printing. National Diet Library pid 2543941. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543941
  13. National Diet Library, NDL Lab full-text search, 「日日是好日」, classical books. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/fulltext?keyword=日日是好日
  14. 白隠『槐安国語』, 1886 edition. National Diet Library pid 822896, scans 39 and 44. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/822896/1/39
  15. 東陽英朝 編『禅林句集』, 文光堂, 1889. National Diet Library pid 899715, scan 69. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/69
  16. 鳥尾得庵『禅林消息』, 1895. National Diet Library pid 823269, scan 20. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823269/1/20
  17. 正岡子規 編『俳家全集』, 1900. National Diet Library pid 2546171, scan 226. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2546171/1/226
  18. 大内青巒『碧巌集講話』, 1906. National Diet Library pid 823474, scans 54–56. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823474/1/54
  19. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910, pp. 750–751. National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 392. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/392

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1 and Opus 5, Takase Studios LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations