In 1834, at the age of 75, Katsushika Hokusai published Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji). In its postscript, he wrote that at 73 he had begun to grasp the structure of birds, beasts, insects and fish, and how plants grow.
He went on: “So at 80 I will progress further, at 90 I will master their deeper meaning, at 100 I will perhaps be truly marvelous, and at 110 every dot and every line will seem alive.”
Shoshin wasuru bekarazu: do not forget the beginner’s mind. In his treatise Kakyō, the Noh master Zeami names three kinds.
Zehi no shoshin is the unpolished art of one’s early days, kept as a standard. Jiji no shoshin is the inexperience that belongs to each stage of a career. Rōgo no shoshin is the new beginning that old age brings.
In his first year at Hanamaki Higashi High School, Ōtani Shōhei made a goal-achievement sheet based on the Mandala Chart. At its center he wrote Dora ichi hachi kyūdan: to be the first-round draft pick of eight teams.
Around it he set the goals that would lead there, among them body building, control, breaking balls and mental strength. He also included un, luck, and ningensei, character.
In many Japanese schools, teachers improve their lessons together. A teacher plans a lesson with colleagues from the same grade or subject. The lesson is then taught as a kenkyū jugyō, a research lesson, while all the teachers of the school, or those of one grade or subject, watch.
Afterwards, the observers discuss it, in groups or all together. A paper from the National Institute for Educational Policy Research notes that this lesson study is voluntary training and demands a great deal of work.
In a study published in 2001, the psychologist Steven Heine and colleagues told Japanese participants that they had done well or poorly on a task. On a second task, those who had been told they failed persisted longer than those who had been told they succeeded.
The authors described this as a self-improving pattern.
In 1951, Toyota began an activity in which employees submit creative ideas for improvement. Today it is called the sōi kufū teian seido, the creative idea suggestion system. In March 1953, Toyota adopted the company slogan Yoi shina, yoi kangae, good products, good ideas.
The cumulative number of suggestions passed one million in 1974, ten million in 1984 and forty million in 2011.
In October 2004, Suzuki Ichirō broke the major league record for hits in one season. Afterwards he said: Chicchai koto o kasaneru koto ga, tondemonai tokoro ni tadoritsuku tada hitotsu no michi nan da na to, ima, kanjite imasu. “Now I feel that piling up small things is the only way to reach an extraordinary place.”
Sources give his words in slightly different forms.
In April 1962, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers launched a magazine for the factory floor, Genba to QC. In its first issue, Ishikawa Kaoru introduced the QC circle, a small group in one workplace that carries out quality control on its own initiative.
The definition describes managing and improving the workplace continuously, with everyone taking part.
Otsukaresama (お疲れ様): an expression that acknowledges another person’s effort. At work, it is also said to a colleague who leaves before others. It can be said to colleagues and to superiors.
Isshōkenmei (一生懸命): with all one’s might. It grew out of the older isshokenmei (一所懸命), which described a medieval warrior who staked his life on a single landholding.
Hansei (反省): reflection on one’s own conduct, with regret for what went wrong.
Hanseikai (反省会): a reflection meeting, held after an event or project to review it.
Nanakorobi yaoki (七転び八起き): fall seven times, rise eight. Recovering each time, however many failures come.