Explanation of the character "keep poor" (守拙)

　When trying to accomplish something, it is usually better to be good at it, but there are times when it is better to remain poor (keep poor). It means, among other things, that it is not good to be worldly-wise, and that it is better to live with one's own ideas, even if they are simple, rather than to follow others. From a passage in Tao Yuanming's Chinese poem "Kien Tianjie" ("Return to the Garden and Tabor"). It is also the motto of Soseki Natsume.