真剣 shinken Real Sword

真剣 (shinken): a real sword, a live blade rather than a wooden or bamboo practice sword, and the everyday word for being in earnest.

The デジタル大辞泉 gives both senses: a real sword, said as against a wooden or bamboo practice sword; and meeting a thing seriously, in earnest. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives the same two, and a third: true, no lie. JMdict, the open Japanese–English dictionary, gives serious; earnest before real sword (as opposed to a wooden practice weapon).

Hepburn's dictionary of 1867 reads the two characters as makoto no tsurugi, the true sword. With 勝負, a bout, they make 真剣勝負 (shinken shōbu): a bout fought with real swords, and contending in earnest. In its earnest sense, 真剣 is a manner of meeting a thing. The serious of a serious flaw, grave in itself, JMdict gives to another word, 深刻.

In Ihara Saikaku's 武道伝来記, printed in 1687, one man says a blow of the bamboo practice sword leaves no wound and so proves nothing. The other answers with a question: do you suppose that with a real sword I could not do it?

In a book of 1703, 好色敗毒散, the word is said of a money-changer's trade in gold, the 真剣 trade, where genuine reads as well as in earnest. Ejima Kiseki repeats the sentence nearly word for word in a book of 1715.

In a sharebon of 1794, a book of pleasure-quarter talk, a guest is told that's a lie and answers with the one word しんけん: for real! Earlier in the same book a line is said しんけんで, in earnest. Both are in kana, both are about speech, and neither has a sword in it.

Writers drew the real sword as a figure for being in earnest. In a novel of 1735, a card game on a riverboat turns to high stakes, as a bout with wooden swords becomes one with real blades. In Natsume Sōseki's 虞美人草, a novel of 1907, a character says being serious, you see, means a 眞劒勝負, a fight with real swords.

In English, Hepburn's dictionary of 1867 gives the blade alone: Real sword, (not a wooden one). Brinkley's of 1896 adds a sense it marks colloquial: Real, not ideal; practical. Inouye's of 1909 carries the earnest sense in an example: If in real earnest, I should not be beaten by you. In 1913 E. J. Harrison wrote, of a contest between a boxer and a judo man that never came off, of what the Japanese call a shinken (real fight).

Whether you take it as the live blade or as being in earnest is yours.

No source read here names a maker for 真剣: Chinese histories already set a real sword, 真劍, against an imitation one, glossed as wooden; the earliest Japanese example in the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 is of 1687, in a story of Ihara Saikaku set against the practice sword; and among the witnesses read here its earnest sense is plainest first in speech.

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

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