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一眼二足三胆四力 ichigan nisoku santan shiriki First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength

一眼二足三胆四力 (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) ranks what a fighter needs: eye, feet, courage, strength. Its older count of three is printed in 1701. This study follows how the second place went from quickness to the feet.

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Japanese Scroll of First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength一眼二足三胆四力ichigan nisoku santan shiriki

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

一眼二足三胆四力, ichigan nisoku santan shiriki, first the eye, second the feet, third courage, fourth strength, is a saying of kendō and the martial arts that ranks what a fighter needs, eye first and strength last; JMdict, the one dictionary read for this history that enters it, glosses it firstly vision, secondly footwork, thirdly courage, fourthly technique [1]. The earliest page carrying it in these four words opened for this history is a farming magazine of 1917, where a story of the one-eyed strategist 山本勘助 jokes that 一眼, the eye first, can be read one eye [2]. Behind it stand older counts: 一眼二心三足, eye, mind, feet, printed as a received saying in a book of 1701 signed with 山本勘介's name and chanted on the puppet stage in 1741; 一眼二早足, read いちがんにさそく, the eye, then quickness, on the same stage in 1742; and the count of four with its second place read さそく, quickness, in a book of 1896 [3][4][5][6]. The writings published under 千葉周作's name call the count of three another school's saying, and the credits of the count of four to a master, 千葉 in 1916, 宮本武蔵 in 1930 and 柳生 from 1959 (宗矩 by name in 1991), are late and do not agree [7][8][9][10]; I read it as an old count of a fighter's faculties whose second place meant quickness before it meant the feet.

Overview

The sense. JMdict, in its release of August 2026, enters 一眼二足三胆四力 with the reading いちがんにそくさんたんしりき, marks it as a term of the martial arts, and glosses it firstly vision, secondly footwork, thirdly courage, fourthly technique (the most important aspects of kendo) [1]. kotobank's word pages for it, and for 一眼二足 and 一眼二心三足, return 404 (not found). The Japanese texts read for this history that explain the fourth place make 力 strength, not technique: in 1896, 術語ニ一眼、二さそく、三膽、四力ト云ヒテ力量ノ功用ヲ末位ニ置ケリ, the term of art says eye, quickness, courage, strength, and so puts the use of strength in last place [6]. A judo textbook of 1938 explains two of the places, as the National Diet Library's snippet view shows it: 二足の足とは迅速なるの意である, the 足 of "second, 足" means swiftness, and 三膽の膽とは度胸の事, the 膽 of "third, 膽" is nerve [11].

The words. 足 is the foot, and in this saying it has been read two ways. Read soku, as in 二足, it is the feet; read sasoku and written 早足 or 早速, it is quickness. The 日本国語大辞典 enters さ‐そく【早足・早速】 with two senses: ① 足が速いこと。…すみやかな足づかい, fleetness of foot … swift footwork, its earliest example from Zeami's treatise 『拾玉得花』 of 1428, on how an actor moves in the warrior's style: 足踏も、さそくをつかふ心根を持ちて, even the stepping with the mind of using さそく; and ② 行動や動作がすばやいこと。すみやかなこと。気転がきくこと, quickness of action or movement; promptness; quick wit [12].

The man the oldest book names. 山本勘助, or 勘介, is the strategist of the Takeda house in the 『甲陽軍鑑』. The デジタル大辞泉 gives his dates as ?～1561?; the 日本国語大辞典 says his dates are unknown and that what is told of him is told (…と伝えられる); and the Britannica entry at kotobank says 片目片足であったが…兵法にすぐれていた, he was blind in one eye and lame in one leg, but … excelled in the art of war [13].

The text in English. Sasamori Junzō and Gordon Warner, in This Is Kendo (1964): In kendo there is this saying: "The eyes first, the footwork next, the courage third, and the strength fourth." In other words, the footwork is valued next to the sight [14]. Darrell Craig, in The Heart of Kendo (1999), gives the four in romaji, ichigan, nisoku, santan, and shiriki, or simply "eyes, feet …, where the Internet Archive's search window ends [15]. The Nippon Budokan's Budo: The Martial Ways of Japan (2009), edited by Alexander Bennett, enters Ichigan-nisoku-santan-shiriki in its glossary as the four important factors …, again in a window [16]. JMdict's technique for 力 is the fourth English read for this history [1].

The historical record

1647. The sense, not the words. 『悔草』, a book dated 正保4 (1647), as the National Diet Library's snippet view shows its typeset of 1947: 兵法は。ならひ樣〻にあるとも。畢竟は一心にて。眼足のきゝ。早きを第一とはいへり, the art of war is taught in many ways, but in the end it is one mind, and they say the first thing is that eye and foot work quickly [17]. The words of the saying are not there. 藤井乙男's dictionary of proverbs of 1910, as its text layer reads, cites the passage under the headword 【一眼二早足】, glossed 武藝にて眼と足の働き敏捷なるを尙ぶ, in the martial arts, prizing quickness in the work of eye and foot: the dictionary pairs the two, and the 1647 text is not a witness that the phrase was then in use [18].

1701. 一眼二心三足 in a book signed 山本勘介. 『兵法秘伝書』, printed in Osaka, ends with the signature 山本勘介記 and the colophon 元禄十四辛巳年孟春吉辰 坂陽書肆, an auspicious day of early spring, 1701, a bookseller of Osaka [3]. Under the heading 第三 一心二身之事, third, of one mind and two bodies, it says, in the copy read at the leaf [3][19]:

それへいほうに、一眼二心三足と、いひつたへはべる儀は、眼にはてきのいろを見、こゝろにはせうりをはかりそのうへにて、飛こみ、踐こみ、走こみて、てきをうつを云なり

What is handed down in the art of war as "eye one, mind two, feet three" means this: with the eye you see the enemy's color, with the mind you weigh victory, and then you leap in, step in, run in, and strike the enemy. The ruby reads 眼 がん, 心 しん, 足 そく. The text goes on, in the 1934 typeset, to say that so handed down it seems a sequence of three steps, and that the writer therefore teaches it as 一心二身, since eye and foot both move from the mind [19]. The saying is reported here as already handed down (いひつたへはべる), and argued down. The National Institute of Japanese Literature gives the authorship as 山本勘介 伝, traditional, and lists printings of 1701 and 1804 and undated ones; the 1934 typeset was set from an undated old printing [20][19].

1741–1788. On the puppet stage. In the puppet play 『新うすゆき物語』, first staged in 1741, two men fight to the sound of stamping feet, …轟く足並、一眼二心三足の、手練を得たる二人が爭ひ, two men who have mastered eye one, mind two, feet three, contending [4][21]. In 『男作五雁金』, first staged at the 竹本座 in Osaka in 1742, a pupil splits a falling wooden pillow with his foot and his master cries ホヽヲ一眼、二早足、出來された正九郞, ho! the eye, then quickness: well done, Shōkurō; the printing of 1742 writes 一眼二早足 with the ruby さそく beside 早足 [5][22]. Two later plays use the one-two as a thing the audience knows: in 『石田詰将棊軍配』 (1783) a servant's mock lesson runs 兵法の極意といつば、一眼二早足三な四ゆ、五番に河內の壺阪寺, the secret of the art of war is: one, the eye; two, quickness; three na, four yu; fifth, Tsubosaka temple in Kawachi, a counting joke; and in 『花上野誉石碑』 (1788) the boy 坊太郎 says to his uncle お前におしへて貰ふた通り一眼二早足, the eye and then quickness, just as you taught me [23][24]. These two were read in Meiji typesets only.

Before 1829. A dictionary's bare headword. 太田全斎's 『俚言集覧』, a dictionary of common speech thought to have been compiled between 1797 and 1829, in its enlarged edition of 1899–1900, enters 一眼二早足 with the ruby サソク beside 早足, and no gloss [25][26]. That edition's first volume, of 1899, credits the dictionary to 村田了阿, as it was then believed; kotobank's encyclopedias give it to 全斎 [25][26]. Entries the edition added carry a boxed 増 in that block, and this one does not; from that practice I take it as 全斎's (Notes).

A miscellany prefaced 1815. 二足, the feet. 駒井乗邨's 『鶯宿雑記』, a manuscript miscellany of copied texts whose preface is dated 1815, has in an extract headed 巻三 立□篇 上 (the second character 教 or 敵; the cursive does not settle it), on the soldier's daily guard, …不意の備をなし一眼二足一心二刀の所作肝要也, be ready for the unexpected: the conduct of eye one, feet two, mind one, sword two is essential [27][28]. It is the earliest page read with 二足, and its date is the miscellany's, not the extract's, whose source is not identified.

The stage again. A manuscript kabuki script of 『三国妖婦伝』 in the National Diet Library, by its record a work of 並木五瓶 and others, has 一眼二早足 in a line that sets a Japanese chief beside 黄巾の賊首, the bandit chief of the Yellow Turbans [29]. The script is not dated, and not matched to the play of that title staged in 1807 [30]. Three kabuki plays printed in 『日本戯曲全集』 (1929–1932), 『けいせい忍術池』, 『敵討巖流島』 and 『當龝八幡祭』, use it the same way, as the text layers read: of the art of war, 一眼二早足と云うて、目を利かすが大切, they say the eye and then quickness: what matters is to keep the eye sharp (the text layer interleaves the ruby here, and I give the words without it); すべて試合は一眼二早足、目を第一に致さねばならぬ, in every bout, the eye and then quickness: the eye must come first; and once 一眼二早速 [31]. Their dates were not read for this history.

The 19th century. 千葉周作: "other schools say 一眼二心三足." 千葉周作 (died 1855), founder of the 北辰一刀流, taught 心氣力の一致, the unity of mind, spirit and strength [6]. In 『剣法秘訣』, a book published under his name in 1915 and edited by 千葉勝太郎, as the National Diet Library's snippet view shows it [7]:

他流に一眼、二心、三足と云ふこと有り、此の三つ連續せねば、敵に勝つことは得難きものなり、これは當流に於て心氣力と云ふ塲なり

Other schools have the saying eye one, mind two, feet three: unless these three run on together, it is hard to defeat the enemy. This is the place our school calls mind, spirit and strength. A note in the same book, on 心氣力, ends 本文一眼二心三足の條とは大同小異あるのみ、考ふべし, it differs little from the article on 一眼二心三足 in the main text; consider it; the 『千葉周作遺稿』 of 1942 has the note in the same words [7][32]. Neither book can be opened from outside Japan (Sources not seen).

1896. Both counts, side by side. 小沢卯之助's 『武術体操論』 of 1896 sets them out as one idea. On pp. 85–86: 山本晴行氏ノ著ハセル兵法秘傳書ニ所謂一心二身ト云フコト北辰一刀流ノ開祖千葉周作氏ノ心氣力ノ一致ト云フコト其ノ他ノ諸流泒ニテ一眼二心三足ト云ヒ或ハ眼意足ト云フコトハ何レモ異名同義ニシテ, the one mind and two bodies of the 兵法秘傳書 written by Mr. 山本晴行, the unity of mind, spirit and strength of Mr. 千葉周作, founder of the 北辰一刀流, and what other schools call eye one, mind two, feet three, or eye, will, feet: all are one meaning under different names [6]. The book prints the author's name as 山本晴行. On p. 100 it gives the count of four: 劍道家ガ一眼、二さそく、三膽、四力ト云フヲ見テモ精神ノ敏活ガ武道ニ如何ニ必要ナルカヲ知ルベシ, when swordsmen say eye, quickness, courage, strength, you can see how much quickness of spirit the martial way needs; and on p. 110, the line quoted above that puts strength last [6]. The second place is written in kana, さそく. It is the earliest page read with four places.

1897–1914. The second place as quickness. In kōdan and popular books the count of four runs with its second place written more than one way, among them 機變 and 早速: 一眼二機變三膽四力 in a women's health magazine of 1899, its ruby giving the last two places as さんたんしりよく; 二早速、三膽、四力, with the ruby にさつそくさんたんしりよく, in a book on salesmanship of 1912; 一眼二早速三膽四力、これが武術の極意だ, this is the secret of the martial arts, its ruby reading 早速 さそく and 力 りき, in a kōdan of 1914, whose window does not show who speaks the line [33][34][35]. 機變 is quick wit, and 早速 is quickness read さそく or さっそく. Other kōdan books of these years write the place otherwise (Notes).

1916. A credit to 千葉周作. 『六韜三略虎之巻』, a book of 1916, has, as the snippet view shows it, 先生之秘訣 一眼二即三膽四力 北辰一刀流開祖千…, the master's secret: eye one, swiftness two, courage three, strength four; the founder of the 北辰一刀流, 千…, where the window ends [8]. Its leaf could not be opened (Sources not seen). It is the earliest credit to a named master read for this history, and it gives 千葉 a count that his writings, as published and in the windows read, do not give: there they name only the count of three, and as another school's.

1917. 二足, and a joke about 勘助. The farming magazine 『農業世界』, May 1917, carries a kōdan of 山本勘助. Two men mock the young 勘助, whose left eye is crushed (左の一眼は潰れて居る); one says 武藝を學ぶには一眼では不都合だ, with one eye he is ill fitted to learn the martial arts, and the other answers 能くいふだらう、一眼二足三膽四力, don't they say it: one eye, two feet, three courage, four strength [2]. The joke reads 一眼, the eye first, as one eye, and so makes the one-eyed man the fittest of all. It is the earliest page read with the four words as they stand on the scroll.

1925. 内田良平's four principles. In 『武道極意』, 内田良平 heads a chapter 第十三 武道の四綱目, the four principles of the martial way, and opens it so [36]:

武道に一眼、二足、三膽、四力と云ふことがある。此の四綱目は獨り武道のみならず人間處世の敎訓とも謂つべき金言である。

In the martial way there is the saying eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four. These four principles are golden words that may be called a lesson not for the martial way alone but for how a person lives in the world. Its next sentence is 一眼とは明かに事理を知ることである, the eye is to know clearly the reason of things [36]. In a later chapter of the same book, 第五十五 健脚法, the way to strong legs, he takes the second place as the legs: 武道の四綱目に、一眼、二足、三膽、四力とある如く、脚力は武術上最も大切なるもので, as the four principles of the martial way have it, eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four, the strength of the legs is the most important thing in the martial arts (p. 201, page image) [36]. The sentence is copied nearly word for word in the 1930s and 1940s: a judo textbook of 1938 heads it 『武道極意より』, from 武道極意, and a naginata manual of 1939 opens it 古より武道に…, since of old, in the martial way [11][37]. 『要訳武道極意』 (1980), a book that follows 内田's chapter, explains 力 as more than weight and speed: 一眼、二足、三胆を加えた…諸要素を兼ねそなえて完全な力, a complete strength that holds the eye, the feet and courage within it [38].

1920–1944. Two counts in the school books. The count of three did not go away. 高野佐三郎's 『日本剣道教範』 of 1920, as its text layer reads, ranks it with the unity of mind, form and sword: 心形刀の一致といひ、一眼二心三足といひ劍術三要とも稱して心と眼と四肢との一致して働くべきを教へたる皆同じ意なり, the unity of mind, form and sword, eye one, mind two, feet three, the three essentials of swordsmanship: all teach that mind, eye and limbs must work as one, and all mean the same [39]. The school manuals of the 1930s and 1940s repeat it as a saying of unity, beside 気剣体の一致 [40]. The count of four went into the same books as a ranking, its second place now the feet: a kendō reader of 1939 sets it at the head of its section 第七、足, seventh, the feet, and a naginata manual for women of 1942 explains it as 足の働き, the work of the feet [41][42].

1930. A credit to 宮本武蔵. In 『昭和天覧試合』 (1930): 『一眼、二足、三膽、四力』とは劍聖宮本武藏が敎へた眞劍勝負の祕訣であるが, eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four is the secret of the fight with live blades that the sword saint 宮本武蔵 taught, as the snippet view shows it, with 敎 not legible in the text layer [9]. A book on Japanese kenpō of 1964 says the same: 宮本武蔵が、一眼二足三胆四力といって、脚力を胆力の上位にもってきた, 宮本武蔵 said eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four, and put the strength of the legs above courage [43].

From 1959. A credit to 柳生, by way of golf. From 1959 a third credit appears, in business magazines, a ministry's journal and a book from the employers' federation's press office rather than in kendō books: 柳生の剣法は一眼、二足、三胆、四力を教えておる, the swordsmanship of the 柳生 teaches eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four (1959) [10]. Its carrier is a piece of brushwork. In 1973 a 高石先輩, the elder 高石, left the words framed in the salon of the Takarazuka club, and the window does not say who brushed them; in 1977 the saying is dyed on cloth in the own hand (直筆) of 高石真五郎, 毎日新聞の大先輩, an elder of the Mainichi newspaper, and in 1991 on a hand towel in his brush (筆): この高石先輩は、ゴルフの技術の奥義は柳生流の剣道の極意に通じるものがあるとされ、『一眼、二足、三胆、四力』の文字を額にして、宝塚クラブのサロンに残されている, this 高石, holding that the secret of golf has something in common with the secret of 柳生 swordsmanship, left the words 一眼、二足、三胆、四力 framed in the salon of the Takarazuka club (1973); 「一眼二足三胆四力」これは伝え聞くに、剣豪柳生但馬守の教えられた剣道の極意とか, I hear it was the secret of swordsmanship taught by the great swordsman 柳生但馬守 (1977) [44][45]. In 1991, the towel, its characters by 高石真五郎, ジャーナリズム界の大先達, a great elder of journalism: 柳生但馬守宗矩の剣の極意である, it is the secret of the sword of 柳生但馬守宗矩 [46]. In the same piece, 千葉周作's secret is given as a different count, 一眼、二心、三技、四体、五力 [46].

1985–1997. The reading しりき. Where postwar texts read here give the reading legibly, they give 四力 as しりき, as the ruby of 1914 reads 力 りき: いちがん、にそく、さんたん、しりき, given beside the characters in 1996 and 1997, guessed so in 1985 (とでも読むのだろうか, perhaps one reads it), and in JMdict [47][48][49][1][35]. The ruby of 1899 and 1912 gives しりよく, shiryoku [33][34]. A window of 1980, one kana not legible, reads し?よ, and its legible よ fits しりよく, not しりき (Notes). Two of these windows also credit the saying to 柳生, as hearsay: これは柳生流の極意を伝える言葉だそうである, this, they say, is a phrase that hands down the secret of the 柳生 school, of brushwork hung in a lobby (1985, a ministry's journal), and 柳生但馬守の剣の極意だそう…, they say it is the secret of the sword of 柳生但馬守, in a passage on golf (1996) [49][47].

Since. Kendō's own literature. A paper of 1989 in a kendō journal gives the saying as old and, in the windows read, unattributed. The paper, on footwork in Meiji and Taishō kendō opens 古くから，剣道では，「一眼二足三胆四力」といわれるように足構えや足の運用は剣道の大切な基本とされてきている, as kendō has long said, eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four, the stance and use of the feet have been held basic to kendō [50]. A guide of 1989 to the higher dan examinations counts it among kendō's stock phrases (剣道常套句) and lists 「一眼二足三胆四力について述べよ」, discuss eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four, among the questions to prepare; on footwork it says 古来いろいろの言いつたえがあります。たとえば『一眼二足三膽四力』『一眼一心三足』『一足一刀』『二足一刀』などがそれにあたります, there are many sayings handed down from of old, for example eye one, feet two, courage three, strength four, with three others, and names no source [51]. A search of J-STAGE finds the saying in fourteen papers, and by their titles none studies where it came from [52].

What is not a source. No witness read for this history before 1916 names an author for either count: the 1701 book reports the count of three as handed down, 千葉's writings as another school's, 小沢 in 1896 as what swordsmen say [3][7][6]. The credits to 千葉 (1916), 宮本武蔵 (1930) and 柳生 (from 1959; 宗矩 by name in 1991) name no text; the 1977 one gives itself as hearsay (伝え聞くに).

A reading

The record first. The saying ranks a fighter's faculties, the eye always first. Its oldest form read here is a count of three, eye, mind, feet, printed in 1701 as already handed down, in a book signed with the name of a strategist of the 16th century, and chanted on the stage in 1741 [3][4]. A one-two, the eye and then さそく, quickness, was on the stage from 1742 and in a dictionary of common speech before 1829 [5][25]. 二足 as the feet is in a miscellany prefaced 1815, beside mind and sword [27]. 千葉周作's writings, as published, name the count of three as another school's [7]. The count of four, with さそく second, is in print in 1896, and with 足 second from 1917 [6][2]. The credits to masters come from 1916 on and do not agree [8][9][10].

The readings next. The second place has been read two ways. In the Edo plays, the Meiji books and a judo textbook of 1938 it is quickness, さそく, the 日本国語大辞典's second sense of 早足, and so the saying ranks quickness of body after the eye and before courage [5][6][11][12]. In 1925 内田 reads it as the legs, and from 1930 the books on kendō read it as the feet; the modern teaching is footwork [36][9][41][14][50]. The two are close: the dictionary's first sense of さそく is swift footwork, and the 1647 essay puts eye and foot together as what must be quick [12][17]. The fourth place is strength in every Japanese text read that explains it; JMdict's technique is not among them [6][38][1].

What I sign is this. The saying is older than the credits to masters, which begin in 1916 in the witnesses read, and in those witnesses it was never one master's: it was a counting saying of the fighting arts, as the 1701 book and 千葉 both treat it, and it grew from three places to four. Its second place first meant quickness, the eye's partner; I read the change to the feet as coming when the second place was written 足 and read soku, and footwork became what kendō teaches. That the 1701 book put the saying in the mouth of a strategist whom the dictionaries call blind in one eye, and that the 1917 joke turns on the same man's one eye, is an irony the record holds; whether the 1701 book meant anything by it, nothing read here can say. On a scroll the saying is the order of what matters: see first, move second, then nerve, and strength last of all. Signed, 典.

Notes

The reading of the scroll's four words. JMdict reads the saying いちがんにそくさんたんしりき, as the title here does [1]. Before 1945 the ruby read here gives 四力 as しりよく (1899, 1912) and 力 as りき (1914), and a compiler's book of kendō sayings of 1980, in a window where one kana is not legible, reads it し?よ [33][34][53]. Both readings of 四力 are attested; every postwar text read whose reading is legible gives しりき, and the 1980 window's legible よ fits しりよく, not しりき.

The 1701 leaf. In the Rikkyō University copy, 一眼二心三足 is read with its ruby がん, しん, そく; the kana between それへい and に was not checked stroke by stroke, and the typeset reads へいほう [3][19]. A text of the same passage, in a mixed kanbun form, 一心二身の事夫兵法ニ一眼二心三足ト云儀有只一心二身ト云フヘシ, is in a book of 1905 seen only in the snippet view [54].

The 1741 leaf. In the printing of 1741, 眼 and 三 are clear, and 二心 reads as one shape at the resolution read; the 1898 typeset has 一眼二心三足 [4].

The 俚言集覧 entry. That the unmarked entry is 太田全斎's, not an addition of 1899–1900, is my inference from the 増 marks on the same page; the edition's preface, read in its text layer only, does not say what the mark means [25].

The 鶯宿雑記 extract. 足 is read by its shape, and the particle after 二刀 is not settled [27].

柳生 and golf. The windows read that credit 柳生 come from business magazines, a ministry's journal and a book of the employers' federation's press office (1959–1996), two of them naming 高石真五郎's brushwork (1977, 1991); none names a 柳生 text [10][44][45][46][49][47].

A count of 千葉's. The 1991 piece gives 千葉周作's secret as 一眼、二心、三技、四体、五力; no text of 千葉's read for this history has it [46].

The second place, 1897–1914. Three more kōdan books of these years, read in snippet view, write the second place otherwise: 總て劍術は一眼二早卽といひ, in all swordsmanship they say the eye and then promptness, 早卽 twice in a window that shows the first two places only (1897); 所謂一眼、二機智、三膽、四力, with 機智, quick wit (1909); and 一眼、二左足、三膽.四力, where the text layer interleaves the ruby がん, さそく, たん, so 左足 is a writing of さそく (1914) [55][56][57]. Each date is the book's; the 1897 and 1909 books are stenographs of storytellers who had died before they were printed, by their library records.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
一眼二足三胆四力VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
一眼二足三胆四力VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
一眼二足三胆四力VD5JJiun
Japanese Scroll of First the Eye, Second the Feet, Third Courage, Fourth Strength (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
一眼二足三胆四力VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

服部正之介, 『六韜三略虎之巻』 下, 寺田書店, 1916. The earliest credit to 千葉周作, read only in a snippet window; the National Diet Library's viewer does not open it [8].

千葉周作, 『剣法秘訣』, ed. 千葉勝太郎, 1915, and 千葉栄一郎 ed., 『千葉周作遺稿』, 1942: read only in snippet windows; neither opens from outside Japan [7][32]. Two anthologies of older kendō texts carry the note on 心氣力 in their snippet windows: 『明治武道史』 (1971), whose contents include 高坂昌孝's 『千葉周作先生直伝 劔術名人法』 and a 『劔法秘訣』 compiled by 広瀬真平, and 『近代剣道名著大系』 vol. 2 (1985), which reprints 高坂's book and the 『剣法秘訣』 of 1915. Which reprinted text holds the note was not read, so whether it stood in print before 1915 is not known [58][59].

『兵法秘伝書』 in an older printing: the 1934 typeset was set from an undated old printing, and whether one older than 1701 exists is not known [19][20]. The 『甲陽軍鑑』 and its 末書 were not searched for the saying.

『石田詰将棊軍配』 (1783) and 『花上野誉石碑』 (1788) in their Edo printings; the source of the 鶯宿雑記 extract; the date of the 三国妖婦伝 script.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. JMdict (EDRDG), release 3.6.2 of 17 August 2026, entry 2847702, 一眼二足三胆四力, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/一眼二足三胆四力
  2. 『農業世界』 12(6), 博友社, May 1917, a kōdan of 山本勘助 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1756643
  3. 山本勘介 記 (伝), 『兵法秘伝書』, 坂陽書肆, 元禄14 (1701), 立教大学 江戸川乱歩旧蔵 copy, imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvas 46 (第三 一心二身之事) and canvas 69 (colophon). https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100297517/46
  4. 文耕堂 ほか, 『新うすゆき物語』, 寛保1 (1741) printing, 大阪府立中之島図書館 copy, imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvas 9; typeset in 水谷不倒 校訂, 『竹田出雲浄瑠璃集』, 博文館, 1898, scan 451. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/300088619/9
  5. 竹田出雲, 『男作五雁金』, 寛保2 (1742) printing, 名古屋大学附属図書館 copy, imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvas 36; typeset in 『竹田出雲浄瑠璃集』, 1898, scan 216. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100272298/36
  6. 小沢卯之助, 『武術体操論 : 武道改良教授』, 小林仙鶴堂, 1896, pp. 85–86 (scans 54–55), p. 100 (scan 62), p. 110 (scan 67), at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860467/1/55
  7. 千葉周作 著, 千葉勝太郎 編, 『剣法秘訣』, 1915 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1704136
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  19. 『甲斐叢書』 第9巻, 甲斐叢書刊行会, 1934, the editor's note (scans 5–6) and 『兵法秘傳書』 p. 354 (scan 185), at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1209128/1/185
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  23. 『石田詰将棊軍配』 (1783), typeset in 『江戸作者浄瑠璃集』, 博文館, 1898, scan 279, by its text layer, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1882699/1/279
  24. 『花上野誉石碑』 (1788), typeset in 『やまと文範義太夫丸本大全』, 1894 (snippet view), and in 『花上野誉の石碑 : 金毘羅利生記』, 1891, scan 39, by its text layer, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/856865
  25. 村田了阿 編 (now given to 太田全斎), 井上頼圀・近藤瓶城 増補, 『俚言集覧』 上巻, 皇典講究所印刷部, 1899 (preface dated summer 1899), p. 152 (scan 81), at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/991569/1/81
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Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 一眼二足三胆四力 (ichigan nisoku santan shiriki)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/ichigan-nisoku-santan-shiriki.