殺人剣 satsujinken Life Taking Sword

殺人剣 is the killing half of a Zen pair whose other half, 活人剣, is the sword that gives life. In the pair the killing is not a villain's. A Zen teacher holds both swords, and this is the hand that takes from a student, as the other gives. In the sword schools it is the stroke that ends the other's answer. For Yagyū Munenori it is the ruler's sword that kills one evil so that ten thousand may live. Which of these it means is yours to choose. The text here writes 殺人剣 with 剣, as the modern dictionaries head it; the Zen books mostly write this half 殺人刀, with 刀, the single-edged blade.

The other half of 殺人剣, Life Giving Sword (katsujinken), is offered on its own.

殺人剣 is composed of the kanji 殺人 (read satsujin) meaning "killing a person" and 剣 Sword (ken).

Note that the Japanese word satsujin is often translated as murder but this is not strictly correct as satsujin only means "kill a person" which includes murder but it also may mean killing someone evil or killing someone in defense of oneself, one's family or one's country - so it does not have the strictly negative meaning that the word "murder" has.

The first half of a Chan saying already a proverb in the 景徳伝灯録 of 1004; the saying came to Japan with Zen in the thirteenth century, and the Japanese Zen master Kōhō Kennichi wrote this half with 劍, as the scroll does, in his sermons from 1281.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 殺人剣.

Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.

Your purchase includes a personal-use license: use the design as a tattoo reference, frame it, engrave it, print it for yourself, or make it into a gift. For more information see Licensing, which also covers commercial-use options that may be purchased separately.

Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.

If you need your design again later, ask us for it and we will send it.