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Shoshin
初心 is often translated in Japanese as “beginner's mind” or “beginner's spirit.”
In Chinese, the dictionary definition is “one's original intention.”
The first character means first, initial, primary, junior, beginning, or basic.
The second character means heart, mind, soul, or essence.
初心 is one of the five spirits of the warrior (budo) and is often used as a Japanese martial arts tenet. Under that context, places such as the Budo Dojo define it this way: The state of shoshin is that of a beginners mind. It is a state of awareness that always remains fully conscious, aware, and prepared to see things for the first time. The attitude of shoshin is essential to continued learning.
初心流 is often translated in Japanese as “beginner's mind style” or “beginner's spirit method.”
The first character means first, initial, primary, junior, beginning, or basic.
The second character means heart, mind, soul, or essence.
The third character means style, method, or some will translate it as a school.
Please note, there is more than one martial arts school that romanizes as Shoshin-Ryu.
Never Lose Your Beginner's Spirit
初心忘るべからず is an old Japanese proverb that suggests you try to never forget the enthusiasm you had as a child when you try new things (or even face the day-to-day). Basically, avoid having the mundane attitude that many people get with age.
You'll find this Japanese proverb translated in a few different ways. Here are some of them:
Don't forget your first resolution.
Never forget your childlike enthusiasm.
Forget not the beginner's mind.
Try never to lose your initial enthusiasm (freshness of attitude).
Note: This is sometimes written as 初心忘る可からず. The one shown above is used about 10x more often. There’s only one character difference between the two versions.
Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.
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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Mind of the Beginner | 初心 | sho shin / shoshin | chū xīn / chu1 xin1 / chu xin / chuxin | ch`u hsin / chuhsin / chu hsin |
Shoshin-Ryu | 初心流 | shou shin ryuu shoushinryuu sho shin ryu | ||
Never Forget Your First Resolution | 初心忘るべからず / 初心忘る可からず 初心忘るべからず | sho shin wasu ru be ka ra zu shoshinwasurubekarazu | ||
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |
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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Mind of the Beginner Kanji, Mind of the Beginner Characters, Mind of the Beginner in Mandarin Chinese, Mind of the Beginner Characters, Mind of the Beginner in Chinese Writing, Mind of the Beginner in Japanese Writing, Mind of the Beginner in Asian Writing, Mind of the Beginner Ideograms, Chinese Mind of the Beginner symbols, Mind of the Beginner Hieroglyphics, Mind of the Beginner Glyphs, Mind of the Beginner in Chinese Letters, Mind of the Beginner Hanzi, Mind of the Beginner in Japanese Kanji, Mind of the Beginner Pictograms, Mind of the Beginner in the Chinese Written-Language, or Mind of the Beginner in the Japanese Written-Language.
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