Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

0
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › Life Giving Sword

活人剣 katsujinken Life Giving Sword

活人剣 (katsujinken), the sword that gives life, is the second half of the Zen saying 殺人刀活人剣, and in 1632 the shōgun's sword-master Yagyū Munenori made it the name of a book.

Japanese Scroll of Life Giving Sword (katsujinken) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Life Giving Sword (katsujinken)

Life Giving Sword (katsujinken) on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

View Scroll ›

Abstract

活人剣, katsujinken, the sword that gives life, is the second half of a seven-character Zen saying, 殺人刀活人剣, the sword that kills, the sword that gives life. The pair is already a proverb among Chan masters in the 景徳伝灯録 of 1004, and the 碧巌録 of 1125 called it the rule of high antiquity. In Japanese the half is a word of its own by the late sixteenth century, when a war chronicle has a captain shout the pair as he charges, and in 1632 Yagyū Munenori 柳生宗矩 made it the name of one of the two books of his 兵法家伝書, the book of the sword that, once order is made, gives life.

Overview

The text. 活人剣, three characters: 活, to give life, to bring alive; 人, a person; 剣, the double-edged straight sword of the Chinese books and the word Japanese uses for the sword as an art. In the saying it answers 殺人刀, the sword that kills, and in the saying's usual form the life-giving half is written with 剣 (劍 and 劔 in older print) while the killing half takes 刀; a few Chinese records exchange the blades, 殺人劍活人刀 [1]. Read as a Japanese word it is katsujinken; in the Zen pair and in Yagyū's book it is katsuninken, and JMdict gives both readings [2][3].

The sense. The 日本国語大辞典: 人を活かす剣。剣は元来、人を殺傷するためのものであるが、その用い方によっては、人を活かすものともなること。また、その剣の道, a sword that gives life: a sword is by nature for killing and wounding, but by the way it is used may become a thing that gives life; also, that way of the sword. デジタル大辞泉: 本来、人を殺傷する目的のための刀剣が、使い方によって人を生かすものとしてはたらくこと, a blade whose purpose is to kill and wound working, by the way it is used, as a thing that gives life; both mark it as the opposite of 殺人剣 [3]. Inside the pair the giving half has been read four ways. In the Zen books it is what a teacher gives: the 1915 Zen dictionary says 活は積極、扶起、放行の意, giving life is the positive: raising up, letting go [4]. In Yagyū's book it is the killing sword itself, once it has brought a disordered world to order [5]. In the sword schools it is technical: Karl Friday glosses it swordsmanship that animates [6]; William Scott Wilson's note has the life-giving sword, not held in a stance, provoke the opponent to action [7]; and the Yagyū tradition, in Hiroaki Sato's English, calls the sword not held in an attacking stance the life-giving sword [8]. And in an 1830 tea room it is the sword a samurai wears to give people life, which is how the dictionaries define the word [9][3].

The text in English. The sword that brings people to life is the Clearys' of 1977; the life-giving sword is Sato's of 1985, the title of William Scott Wilson's translation of 2003 and of the second book in Thomas Cleary's of 2005; JMdict gives life-saving sword [10][8][11][12][2].

The historical record

1004. The 景徳伝灯録, the record of the Chan lineages. The pair is already a proverb among the masters of the ninth century as the record remembers them. 夾山 says of 石霜, 石霜雖有殺人刀。且無活人劍, Shishuang has the sword that kills, but not yet the sword that gives life; a monk asks 清平 what is the sword that gives life? and is told do you understand?, asks what is the sword that kills? and is shouted at. The two swords are two things a teacher does [13].

Before 1052. Setchō Jūken 雪竇重顕 (Xuedou Chongxian), whose hundred cases became the Blue Cliff Record. 殺人刀，活人劍，具眼底辯取, the sword that kills, the sword that gives life: let those with eyes tell them apart [14].

1125. Engo Kokugon 圜悟克勤 (Yuanwu Keqin, 1063–1135), the 碧巌録. The book that fixed the phrase. Two cases open with it, in the sentence the Japanese dictionaries quote: 殺人刀活人劍。乃上古之風規。亦今時之樞要。若論殺也。不傷一毫。若論活也。喪身失命, the sword that kills, the sword that gives life: the rule of high antiquity and the pivot of the present day. Speaking of killing, not a hair is harmed; speaking of giving life, body and life are lost. In the thirty-first case a monk circles two masters' seats shaking his staff, and one says yes, yes, the other no, no, and both add 殺人刀活人劍。須是本分宗師, the sword that kills and the sword that gives life: for that you must be a master in your own right. Engo's marginal comments reach for it three times more [15].

The twelfth century. Wanshi Shōgaku 宏智正覚 (Hongzhi Zhengjue) and Mittan Kanketsu 密庵咸傑 (Mi'an Xianjie). Wanshi puts it in verse with the giving half first, 活人劍殺人刀。倚天照雪利吹毛, and says it is 在臨際手裏, in Linji's hands; Mittan has a master 秉殺人刀活人劍, wielding the two [16][17]. The CBETA search finds the saying in its usual order, 殺人刀活人劍, in 128 texts of the Chinese canon, and 活人劍 in 241 texts in all [1].

1228. Mumon Ekai 無門慧開 (Wumen Huikai), the 無門関. The eleventh case, Jōshū Jūshin 趙州従諗 (Zhaozhou Congshen) testing two hermits, closes with a verse of four three-character lines: 眼流星 機掣電 殺人刀 活人劍, eye a shooting star, working a lightning flash, the sword that kills, the sword that gives life [18].

The fifteenth century. Tōyō Eichō 東陽英朝's 禅林句集. The Japanese anthology of Zen phrases lists 殺人刀活人劔 among the six-character sayings, with its two addresses, 碧岩垂示第十二 and 無門十一則, and gives the pair as a couplet of two figures, 文殊提起殺人刀 淨名抽出活人劍, Monju holds up the sword that kills; Jōmyō, that is Vimalakīrti, draws the sword that gives life [19]. A Taishō edition with Japanese readings prints the same couplet [20].

Late Muromachi. The ballad 満仲. The dictionary's first Japanese citation of the pair is a 幸若 ballad: 殺人刀活人剣、みな一念のうちなり, the sword that kills, the sword that gives life, all within one thought [21].

1558. Takeda Nobushige 武田信繁's ninety-nine articles. The oldest dated warrior's use is a house rule. Among the ninety-nine articles Shingen's brother wrote for his son, dated by their colophon to the first year of Eiroku and transmitted in the 甲陽軍鑑, the article that a samurai must never be without his sword, even lying with his wife, is glossed with the Zen line: 縱ヒ雖在夫婦一所、聊タ不可忘刀ヲ事 云 殺人刀活人劔 [22][23].

1580 to 1592. The 別所長治記. A captain shouts it as he charges: 小八郎聞モアヘス殺人刀活人劔ト云拾無是非掛イリ給フ, Kohachirō, hearing him out no further, cried "the sword that kills, the sword that gives life!" and charged in. This is the 日本国語大辞典's first citation for 活人剣 as a word of its own [3][24]. A seventeenth-century tale, the 室町殿物語, lists 活人劍殺人刀 among a swordsman's techniques beside the ten-character cut and the throwing blade [24].

1632. Yagyū Munenori 柳生宗矩, the 兵法家伝書. The shōgun's sword-master made the two halves the names of the two books of his family's text, and in the colophon dated the ninth month of 1632 said why: 此卷上下を殺人刀活人劔と名たる心は、人をころす刀、却て人をいかすつるぎ也、とは夫亂たる世には、故なき者多く死するなり、亂たる世を治める爲に殺人刀を用ひ、巳に治る時は殺人刀を卽て活人劔ならずや、是を以所名付也, the meaning of naming these two books "the sword that kills" and "the sword that gives life" is that the sword that kills people is, on the contrary, the sword that gives them life. In a world in disorder many die for no cause; to bring order to a disordered world the killing sword is used, and once order is made, is not the killing sword then the sword that gives life? That is why they are so named. The preface had already argued it from the Chinese maxim that weapons are instruments of ill omen: 一人の惡に依て萬人苦む事あり、しかるに一人の惡をころして、万人をいかす是等誠に人をころす刀は、人をいかすつるぎなるべきにや, because of one man's evil ten thousand suffer; to kill that one evil man and give life to ten thousand: is not the sword that kills people truly the sword that gives them life? And the body: 兵法は人をきるとばかりおもふはひが事也、人をきるにはあらず、惡をころす也, to think the art of the sword is only cutting people down is a mistake; it does not cut people, it kills evil [5]. The 日本大百科全書 reads the book's two titles 殺人刀 setsunintō and 活人剱 katsuninken [25].

Before 1840. A story told of Tsukahara Bokuden 塚原卜伝. Of the swordsman Tsukahara Bokuden (1489–1571) the 日本大百科全書 says that his life is known mostly from hearsay [26]. The Mito scholar 小宮山楓軒 (Komiyama Fūken, 1764–1840), in his manuscript 垂統大記, retells, citing the 武芸小伝, how Bokuden, on a ferry, met a swordsman who boasted that he had no equal. Asked his method, Bokuden said winning without hands; asked what, then, his two swords were for, he said they were for cutting away evil thoughts; and when the man demanded a bout, he said 慎獨則活人劍，對虐則殺人劍, watchful over myself, the sword that gives life; against violence, the sword that kills. The man jumped ashore on an island to fight him, and Bokuden pushed the boat off with the pole and left him there [27][28]. The Ministry of Education's history of education printed the passage in 1892 under 刀術, marked as taken from the 垂統大記 [29].

1830. 安西於菟, on a tea-room scroll. A connoisseur of calligraphy tells of visiting a house where a one-line scroll hung in the tea room reading 人刀活人劔, five characters, mounted in brocade with a certificate from an old-calligraphy appraiser, and the host said 武士は人を活す為に帯刀するとはよき悟りなり, that a samurai wears his sword to give people life is a fine insight. The author saw what had happened: a monk had brushed the seven characters, and a dealer had cut off the 殺, because tea people abhor the word for killing, 殺人刀活人剣の妙語を損壊したる大ひなる罪なるべし, a great crime, to have wrecked the marvelous phrase [9]. It is the closest witness on record to the giving half hung by itself on a wall.

1915. Yamada Kōdō 山田孝道's 禅宗辞典. The Zen dictionary heads the half on its own, クワツニンケン 活人劍, as the counterpart of 殺人刀, 殺人刀と對句, and one of the seven things a Rinzai monk carries on him; under the pair it gives 師家の學人を接する自由の妙用を刀劍を假りて示す, the master's free working in receiving a student, figured as a sword, with giving life as raising up and letting go [4].

The dictionaries today. The 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉 head 活人剣 as a word, a sword that gives life, and the seven characters together as the Zen phrase: 大辞泉, the master holding back the student's wisdom and leading him freely toward completion, figured as the sword of free killing and giving life [3][21].

What is not a source. Takuan Sōhō 沢庵宗彭's 不動智神妙録, which the encyclopedias set beside Yagyū's book, does not use either word; the two names are Yagyū's own borrowing from the 碧巌録 and the 無門関. The kendo and aikido books that carry the pair are reception, not sources.

The half in English

1977. Thomas and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, Shambhala. The first English 碧巌録: The sword that kills people, the sword that brings people to life: this is the standard way of high antiquity, and at the fifteenth case the single-edged sword that kills people, the double-edged sword that brings people to life [10].

1985. Hiroaki Sato, The Sword and the Mind, Overlook Press (Barnes & Noble printing, 2004). The first English 兵法家伝書. The book is The Life-Giving Sword, read katsuninken, and the note at p. 50 says The term, along with setsuninto (death-dealing blade), appears several times in the Hekiganroku; under its title, Muneyoshi's definition: In our school the sword that is positioned for attack is called the death-dealing blade, and the sword that is not, the life-giving sword [8].

1991. Stanley A. Pranin, The Aiki News Encyclopedia of Aikido, Aiki News, p. 61. KATSUJINKEN. Life-giving sword. See SATSUJINKEN. [30]

1994. Winston L. King, Zen and the Way of the Sword, Oxford University Press. Chapter 10 is The Life-giving "Sword" of the Martial Arts, the turn from killing art to self-cultivation [31].

1997. Karl F. Friday, Legacies of the Sword, University of Hawai'i Press. katsujin-ken, swordsmanship that animates, against setsunin-to; Kamiizumi's swordsmanship centered on katsujin-ken; and the two terms derive from Buddhist allegory [6].

2002. Minoru Kiyota, The Shambhala Guide to Kendo. "life-rendering sword" (katsujin-ken) and the "death-rendering sword" (satsujin-ken), and a sentence naming the popular reading as popular: Popularly, katsujin-ken and satsujin-ken are interpreted as the employment of the sword for worthy … [32].

2003. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand, University of Hawai'i Press. The capping-phrase anthology gives the seven characters as entry 6.147, Setsunintō katsuninken. The blade that kills, the "sword" that brings to life, and the couplet as 14.675, Vimalakirti draws the sword that gives people life [33].

2003 and 2004. William Scott Wilson, The Life-Giving Sword, Kodansha International, and The Lone Samurai. The second English 兵法家伝書 took the half for its title; the Shambhala printing of 2012 prints the kanji: When it is not in stance, it is called the Life-Giving Sword, with katsujinken 活人剣 in the translator's bracket [11].

2005. Thomas Cleary, Soul of the Samurai, Tuttle. The third English 兵法家伝書, whose Book 2 is The Life-Giving Sword; and "The sword that kills is the sword that gives life" is a Zen expression. In Zen literature it is never employed as Yagyu uses it here, to refer to actual killing [12].

2006. William Scott Wilson (tr.), The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts, Shambhala. If it is not held in a stance, it is termed the Life-giving sword, or katsujinken … the Life-giving sword, not being held in a stance, tends to provoke the opposition to action, thus "giving life" or "activity" to the opponent's sword [7].

Today. JMdict: 活人剣, life-saving sword (a killing sword may be a sword of life depending on how it is used) [2]. Life-giving sword is the translators' English, from Sato to Cleary. A rendering of the half keeps it a half: 活人剣 is an answer to 殺人刀.

A reading

活人剣 is the half of the saying that can hang alone, and it has done so: the 別所長治記 already uses it as a word, the 1830 host hung it, and the dictionaries head it. I take the host's side against the author who mocked him: a sword that gives life is a fine thing to hang. But the force of the phrase is in the pair. In every reading, the Zen teacher's, Yagyū's and the sword schools', the giving sword is the answer to the killing one, and a reader of the half alone is reading the second half of a sentence.

References

  1. CBETA full-text search, searched again 26 September 2026: 殺人刀活人劍 in 128 texts, 活人劍 in 241, 殺人劍活人刀 in 5. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/search?q=殺人刀活人劍
  2. JMdict (EDRDG), entry 2141190, 活人剣, at jisho. https://jisho.org/search/活人剣
  3. 「活人剣」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/活人剣-464356
  4. 山田孝道, 『禅宗辞典』, 光融館, 1915. National Diet Library pid 936741, scans 253, 306 and 431. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/936741/1/431
  5. 柳生宗矩, 『兵法家伝書』, in 福井久蔵 編, 『秘籍大名文庫』, 第2, 厚生閣, 1937. National Diet Library pid 1074542, scans 4, 10, 11 and 39. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1074542/1/39
  6. Karl F. Friday, Legacies of the Sword, University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. Internet Archive legaciesofswordk0000frid. https://archive.org/details/legaciesofswordk0000frid
  7. William Scott Wilson (tr.), The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts, Shambhala, Boston, 2006, p. 150 note 1.
  8. Hiroaki Sato (tr.), The Sword and the Mind, Overlook Press, 1985; Barnes & Noble printing, New York, 2004, p. 50 and the second and third books. Also Internet Archive swordmindclassic0000yagy. https://archive.org/details/swordmindclassic0000yagy
  9. 安西於菟, 『近世名家書画談』, 二編, 1830. National Diet Library pid 2564850, scan 22. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2564850/1/22
  10. Thomas and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, Shambhala, Boulder, 1977. Internet Archive bluecliffrecord10000yuan. https://archive.org/details/bluecliffrecord10000yuan
  11. William Scott Wilson (tr.), The Life-Giving Sword, Kodansha International, 2003 (Shambhala printing, Boston, 2012, p. 145 note 1), and The Lone Samurai, Kodansha International, 2004. Internet Archive lonesamurailifeo0000wils. https://archive.org/details/lonesamurailifeo0000wils
  12. Thomas Cleary, Soul of the Samurai, Tuttle, 2005. Internet Archive soulofsamurai0000unse. https://archive.org/details/soulofsamurai0000unse
  13. 『景徳伝灯録』. CBETA T51n2076, juan 16 and juan 23. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T51n2076&juan=16
  14. 雪竇重顕, 『明覚禅師語録』. CBETA T47n1996, juan 3. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T47n1996&juan=3
  15. 圜悟克勤, 『碧巌録』. CBETA T48n2003, juans 2, 4 and 6. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T48n2003&juan=2
  16. 宏智正覚, 『宏智禅師広録』. CBETA T48n2001, juans 2 and 3. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T48n2001&juan=2
  17. 密庵咸傑, 『密庵和尚語録』. CBETA T47n1999, juan 1. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T47n1999&juan=1
  18. 無門慧開, 『無門関』. CBETA T48n2005, juan 1. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T48n2005&juan=1
  19. 東陽英朝, 『禅林句集』, 1889 typeset. National Diet Library pid 899716, scans 4 and 44. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899716/1/4
  20. 山本峻岳 編, 『禅林句集和訓略解』, 光融館, 1925, p. 142.
  21. 「殺人刀活人剣」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/殺人刀活人剣-548441
  22. 武田信繁, ninety-nine articles, in 『甲陽軍鑑』, 温故堂, 1893. National Diet Library pid 899828, scan 14. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899828/1/14
  23. The same articles, an Edo manuscript of the 甲陽軍鑑. National Diet Library pid 1287447, scan 52. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1287447/1/52
  24. 塙保己一 編, 『武家名目抄』, in 『故実叢書』, 吉川弘文館, 1906, quoting 『別所長治記』 and 『室町殿物語』. National Diet Library pid 772001, scans 30, 55 and 56. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/772001/1/56
  25. 「兵法家伝書」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), 渡邉一郎, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/兵法家伝書-1589673
  26. 「塚原卜伝」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典・日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/塚原卜伝-99062
  27. 小宮山楓軒, 『垂統大記』, manuscript, volume 37, scan 39. National Diet Library pid 2560356. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2560356/1/39
  28. 「小宮山楓軒」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/小宮山楓軒-504598
  29. 文部省 編, 『日本教育史資料』 〔9〕, 文部省, 1892, scan 272, under 刀術 (垂統大記抄). National Diet Library pid 809562. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/809562/1/272
  30. Stanley A. Pranin, The Aiki News Encyclopedia of Aikido, Aiki News, 1991, pp. 61 and 97.
  31. Winston L. King, Zen and the Way of the Sword, Oxford University Press, 1994. Internet Archive zenwayofswordarm0000king. https://archive.org/details/zenwayofswordarm0000king
  32. Minoru Kiyota, The Shambhala Guide to Kendo, 2002. Internet Archive shambhalaguideto00mino. https://archive.org/details/shambhalaguideto00mino
  33. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003, entry 6.147 at p. 241 and entry 14.675 at p. 586.

Books Cited

Books this article cites that can be ordered today.

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios LLC)

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

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations, on the grouped file — every claim tested at its address; about half resolve; one resolves but differs — an unmarked reading (婦/掃), since marked; the rest not openable; one page image re-opened by hand, verbatim