常に思念工夫せよ tsune ni shinen kufū seyo Always Be Creative
常に思念工夫せよ (tsune ni shinen kufū seyo), always think and work it out, is the last of Funakoshi Gichin's twenty precepts, and its words were a kendo manual's chapter heading in 1920: think, devise, then test it on the floor, as one discipline.
Abstract
常に思念工夫せよ, always think and work it out, is the twentieth and last of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍's twenty precepts of karate. The list of twenty rests on a 1938 book not held here, 空手道大観, which the encyclopedias cite for its frontispiece photograph and which the 2003 English translation of Funakoshi's own commentary names as the first printing of the precepts with that commentary. The precept's words are older than the list: 思念工夫 is a kendo manual's chapter heading of 1920 and budō-manual vocabulary from at least 1894.
Overview
The text. 常に思念工夫せよ, tsune ni shinen kufū seyo, always think and work it out. The twenty precepts are given by the Japanese Wikipedia article on Funakoshi, citing a photograph in a 1938 book, as a numbered list [1]; this is item 20.
The sense. The precept is a kendo master's rule for practice, and its sense is his: thinking and devising, then testing on the floor, as one discipline. Funakoshi's commentary calls it the principle that encapsulates all the principles that come before it [2].
The words. The twenty precepts are written in the formal Japanese of their day: 先づ with づ, 而して, 放たん, 要す. 常に, always; 思念, thinking on, in Japanese since the 日本霊異記 [3]; and 工夫, which in ordinary Japanese is devising a way and in Zen is giving oneself to practice, both senses live in 思念工夫 [4]; せよ, the imperative. As words: always think and work it out.
The text in English. There are no Meiji bilingual dictionaries for a 1938 list; the English begins with the karate books. What a rendering must keep is the imperative: the precepts are rules, not observations. Word for word it is always think and work it out, which is nearest the kendo manual's sense.
The historical record
1920. Takano Sasaburō 高野佐三郎, 『日本剣道教範』 (A Manual of Japanese Kendo), 朝野書店. The precept's words as a chapter heading in the standard kendo manual of the day: 其三 思念工夫の要, third, the necessity of thinking and devising, with the rule 一、思念工夫觀察實驗すべし, think, devise, observe, test, and the text: theory and practice are neither first nor second; note your own habits in every bout, ask seniors your faults, watch others, 常に思を凝らし工夫を積み、思ひ附くことあれば之を實地に試み, always think hard and pile up devices, and whatever you hit on, try it on the floor, ending 常に思念工夫し實地の練習と相俟ちて蘊奥に到らんことを心懸けざるべからず. The compound 思念工夫 is budō-manual vocabulary from at least 1894, when 隈元実道's 『武道教範』 uses it of sparring, 試業ニ交ヘルニ思念工夫ヲ以テセサル可ラス [5][6].
1938. Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和, 『空手道大観』 (A Survey of Karate-dō), the frontispiece. The earliest print anyone names for the twenty as a list. The Japanese encyclopedia gives the list as 空手二十箇条 and cites this book's frontispiece photograph, dated 3 May 1938; the English encyclopedia cites the same book. The Kodansha translation of Funakoshi's commentary names it too: Originally published as Karate-do nijukkajo to sono kaishaku, in 空手道大観, 1938 [2]. The book is not in the National Diet Library's digital collection, and neither are Funakoshi's own five pre-war books. So the list rests on one book, cited by the encyclopedias for its photograph and by the translation for its text. That is the honest footing, and the precepts are Funakoshi's by every tradition that has them [1].
What is not a source. 正法眼蔵 is named in the dictionary for the word 工夫, not as a source of the precept.
The precept in English
1995. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, p. 82. Stevens's own numbered paraphrase of the twenty, Funakoshi summed up his views on the art in his "Twenty Principles of Karate.": 20, Continually polish your mind. "Polish" here connotes constant research into the nature of things [7].
2003. Gichin Funakoshi, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International. The first English of Funakoshi's own commentary on the twenty. It heads this precept Be constantly mindful, diligent, and resourceful in your pursuit of the Way; the commentary says This principle encapsulates all the principles that come before it [2].
Today. The two web lists give Be constantly mindful, diligent, and resourceful, in your pursuit of the Way and Think of ways to apply these precepts every day [8][9]. The first is the Kodansha translation's own heading [2].
A reading
The precept is Funakoshi's by every tradition that carries it, and its words were a kendo chapter heading before they were a karate rule: Takano's think, devise, observe, test. The founder of a modern art wrote his last rule in the language of an older one, and 工夫 keeps both its senses in it, the ordinary devising and the Zen giving of oneself to practice.
References
- 「船越義珍」, § 松濤二十訓, Japanese Wikipedia, citing 仲宗根源和『空手道大觀』(1938) 口絵写真. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
- Gichin Funakoshi, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, translated by John Teramoto, afterword by Jotaro Takagi, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2003 (Kodansha USA, 2012).
- 「思念」, デジタル大辞泉 (初出 日本霊異記), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/思念-522556
- 「工夫」, デジタル大辞泉 (初出 沙石集, 正法眼蔵), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/工夫-251463
- 高野佐三郎, 『日本剣道教範』, 朝野書店, 1920. National Diet Library pid 964519, scan 52. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/964519/1/52
- 隈元実道, 『武道教範』, 振気館, 1894. National Diet Library pid 860494, scan 11. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860494/1/11
- John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1995, p. 82.
- "Nijū kun", Wikipedia (English). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijū_kun
- "The 20 Precepts of Karate", Chiltern Karate. https://www.chilternkarate.co.uk/about-karate/philosophy/20-precepts/