三人寄れば文殊の知恵 sannin yoreba monju no chie If three people gather, the wisdom of Monju

If three people gather, the wisdom of Monju in Japanese is 三人寄れば文殊の知恵 which is read sannin yoreba monju no chie

三人寄れば文殊の知恵 (sannin yoreba monju no chie): three people together have the wisdom of Monju.

Monju is Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom; alone we are ordinary, and three of us taking counsel reach what the monasteries prayed to. The line is in the second Japanese proverb book of 1656 and was what people always say by 1662; its second half is a Buddhist superlative two centuries older, paired in Noh with the Buddha's dullest disciple.

Edo scholars argued whether it descends from a Zen master greeting three newcomers or from Confucius's three travelers, and the 1910 proverb dictionary gave both and chose neither. Two heads are better than one is the smaller English cousin.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 三人寄れば文殊の知恵.

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The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with real silk borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by Sankō (株式会社三幸) in Gifu prefecture, which has been making high quality scrolls since 1947, and we have worked with Sankō for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase