![]() In order to help my students understand the scope of the meaning of kokoro, I had them read “ Tea Life, Tea Mind,” which was originally written in Japanese by Sen Soshitsu XV 2 and translated into English by the staff in the Foreign Affairs Office of the Urasenke Foundation. I earnestly wish that the word kokoro will become more familiar among non-Japanese speaking people, and that it will be adopted as it is, instead of attempting to translate it. Realizing how difficult, challenging, and problematic it is to translate the word kokoro into English, yet continuing to consider it essential to reflect the significance of the word faithfully, I have been introducing the word kokoro to my students and to others for the last 30 years by explaining its meanings through various examples and quotes. The following is a quote by Kakuzo Okakura, the author of the Book of Tea, which illustrates quite well the difficulties of translation in general: In books on Japanese aesthetics, philosophy, literature, and architecture which are written in English, words such as ‘mind,’ ‘heart,’ ‘feelings,’ ‘soul,’ and ‘spirit,’ are applied in order to introduce the concept of kokoro, but these translations leave much to be desired. Since it is an intangible and elusive word, it is difficult to analyze its meaning and define even in the Japanese language, thus, making it even more problematic to translate into English or other languages. Kokoro implies one’s intellectual responses, or, in other situations, implies one’s emotional reactions, and in many cases, it connotes inclusively the mental, emotional and spiritual states of all sentient beings. The character, kokoro, 心, can also be pronounced as shin when it is combined with another character, such as mu, 無, the combined word, 無心, is read as mushin 1. There are many idioms and expressions using the word, kokoro and the Japanese use it frequently and freely.īefore introducing kokoro related Japanese idioms and expressions, it is helpful to note that there is another way to pronounce the word kokoro, written with the same character 心. The word kokoro has been widely used for written texts as well as verbal communication in Japan since ancient times. ![]()
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