A Lesson in Perseverance

Okyo was a great artist who lived in Kyoto. Okyo had many students and admirers who wanted to learn his style of painting. 

Rosetsu was one of the students of Okyo. 

However Rosetsu could not learn even basic painting skills. 

Finally when Rosetsu saw his fellow students become great painters he was discouraged. He left his school and walked away after giving up his dream. 

One winter night as he was walking away, he collapsed on the snow under some pine trees.

There was an odd splashing sound near the place where Rosetsu had collapsed. But he was too exhausted to look into it. 

After he woke up a little later he still heard that sound. 

He walked towards the sound and saw that it was a partially ice covered pond nearby.

There was a large carp, which was a freshwater fish inside the waters of the pond and the fish was trying to reach for a rice cracker which was lying on the ice. 

The fish tried everything it attacked the ice and even tried to leap up on the ice to get the cracker. The carp had injured itself many times in trying to reach for the rice cracker for nearly three hours. 

Finally the carp’s efforts were granted and the ice gave away. 

The carp snatched the cracker and went into the water. 

Rosetsu looked at the carp and realized that he had to be like this carp. He could not give up until he succeeded or that he would die trying. 

He went back to Kyoto and stopped at a nearby temple and prayed for success and thanked the God there for showing him the carp's perseverance. 

Rosetsu went back to Okyo and started learning painting again and this time he was determined to succeed. He redoubled his efforts and soon became one of the greatest painters of his times. He took the image of the leaping carp as his family crest.

Adapted from Japanese Legends and Folktales