起死回生 kishi kaisei Miraculous Comeback

起死回生 brings back what was all but lost. Its first sense is a doctor's: to raise a dying patient and return them to life. From that it fits anything pulled back at the last moment, a nation, a business or a game won in its final inning. The first character means to raise, not to wake, so the word belongs to a recovery and never to a funeral. Whether it is for a comeback you made or one you are still fighting for is yours.

起死回生 is composed of the kanji 起 (read ki) meaning "raise", 死 (read shi) meaning "death", 回 (read kai) meaning "return", and 生 (read sei) meaning "life".

起死回生 began as a Chinese physician's phrase for raising the dying and returning the dead to life, first known in a Tang-era recipe as the Song editors printed it in 1066; Kyoto printers set it in Chinese books from 1639, and its first known Japanese writer is Nakae Tōju 中江藤樹, praising the four legendary physicians in a book written about 1641 and first printed in 1649.

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

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