Learned this new word yesterday. How beautiful! It means "studying" but literally translates as swimming in a field. TOTALLY. It's like finding your way in a field of tall grass, or exploring a subject/field of study. Wow. Just wow.
The dictionaries I've checked list it as being equivalent to 畳水練 (useless book learning, knowing the theory but being unable to put it into practice). The English equivalent might be closer to 'practice swimming on dry land'. Still idiomatic, slightly less poetic.
