On 'Even the Unrefined Is Refined'

fu fuuryuu no tokoro mo mata fuuryuu — Even the Unrefined Is Refined.

On the origin

Traced to the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of the Five Lamps), book 12; also gathered in the Zenrin Kushū, the standard anthology of Zen phrases. The full couplet runs: where there is spirit, add spirit; where there is no elegance, there too is elegance.

On the reading

Where there seems to be no elegance, elegance is also present. The plain, the unfinished, the things left bare. It is only the looking eye that rules them tasteless. Seen without anything added, the scene is simply itself.

On the garment

The seal for this phrase was hand-carved in Tokyo by the artist Satake Hōsen. The front carries this phrase’s seal; the back and inside label carry the Hōsen seal (寳千), printed in vermilion.

The garment is Bella + Canvas 3001 (short sleeve) or Gildan 2400 (long sleeve). A vessel for the word, not the subject itself.

― hosen, tokyo