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真剣 shinken Real Sword

真剣 (shinken), a real sword and the everyday word for in earnest, followed from the Chinese histories through Edo speech into English.

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Japanese Scroll of Real Sword (shinken) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Real Sword真剣shinken

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

真剣 (shinken) is the everyday word for being serious, in earnest, and still the word for a real sword, a live blade as against the wooden or bamboo practice sword. Chinese histories already set a 真劍 against an imitation sword, which one glosses as wooden; the earliest Japanese example of the blade in the great Japanese dictionary is of 1687, in a story of Ihara Saikaku 井原西鶴, while the earnest sense, whose earliest example in the great Japanese dictionary is a money-changer's trade in gold (1703), is at home in speech by 1794, when a guest answers that's a lie with the one word しんけん, for real. The two senses stand side by side from the eighteenth century, joined by a figure the writers drew, play turned serious as a bout with wooden swords becomes one with real blades (1735), and Natsume Sōseki 夏目漱石's being serious means a 眞劒勝負 (1907). In English the dictionaries read here give only the blade until Brinkley's of 1896, which adds real, practical, and earnest comes in an example in Inouye's of 1909.

Overview

The sense. The デジタル大辞泉 gives the noun first, 《本物の刀剣。木刀や竹刀に対していう。》, a real sword, said as against a wooden sword or a bamboo practice sword, and then the adjectival noun, 《まじめに物事に対するさま。本気で物事に取り組むさま。「将来を真剣に考える」「真剣なまなざし」》, meeting a thing seriously; setting about a thing in earnest: "to think seriously about the future", "an earnest gaze" [1]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives three senses, with the earliest example it knows of each: ① 《ほんものの刀剣。本身(ほんみ)。木刀(ぼくとう)、竹刀(しない)などに対していう語。》, a real sword; a true blade; a word said as against a wooden sword, a bamboo practice sword and the like, from 1687; ② 《本気であること。まじめであること。…》, being in earnest; being serious, from 1703; and ③ 《真実であること。うそ、いつわりでないこと。…》, being true; not a lie, not false, from 1794 [1]. JMdict, the open Japanese–English dictionary, puts the adjective first, serious; earnest, and the blade second, real sword (as opposed to a wooden practice weapon) [2]. The English earnest is serious and zealous in intention, purpose, or effort and showing depth and sincerity of feeling [3], and that is what the Japanese adjective covers: a manner of meeting a thing. The English serious reaches further, to what is grave in itself, weighty or important, giving cause for apprehension; critical (the plan has one serious flaw) [4]; the Japanese dictionary entries read here give 真剣 none of that, and JMdict gives that ground to 深刻, serious; severe; grave; acute [5]. Two uses stand outside the senses above. In shogi, 真剣 is a game played for money: a shogi glossary warns that 《「真剣で指す」といえば賭け将棋のことであり、真剣に（まじめに）指すことではない…》, to say "play 真剣で" means betting shogi, not playing 真剣に (seriously) [6], and the デジタル大辞泉's 真剣師 is 《賭け将棋、賭け碁などで生計を立てる者》, one who makes a living at shogi or go played for stakes [7]. And the third sense of the 精選版 日本国語大辞典, true, no lie, is a spoken one, as the historical record shows.

The words. Hepburn's dictionary of 1867 reads the two characters as makoto no tsurugi, the true sword [8], and the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 glosses sense ① with 本身, the true blade [1]. The witnesses write the sword character in several forms of one word: 真剱 in the prints from 1687 to 1735, 真劔 in a chapter title of 1733, 眞劔 in the typesets of 1894, 眞劍 in a book of 1888 and the typeset of 1928, 眞劒 in the books of 1913. The compound 真剣勝負 (shinken shōbu) is, in the デジタル大辞泉, a bout fought with real swords and contending, or meeting a thing, in earnest, and the 精選版 日本国語大辞典's earliest example of it is from 1753 [9]; JMdict gives it fighting with real swords and game played in real earnest [10].

The text in English. J. C. Hepburn's dictionary gives the blade alone, Real sword, (not a wooden one) [8]. Brinkley's of 1896 is the first English dictionary read here to go past it, with a sense it marks colloquial, Real, not ideal; practical, and MAJIME among the synonyms [11]. Inouye's of 1909 gives A real sword; reality, and carries the earnest sense in an example, If in real earnest, I should not be beaten by you [12]. Kenkyusha's dictionary, in its printing of 1939, gives the blade first and Seriousness; earnestness second, with in dead earnest [13]. JMdict today gives serious; earnest first [2].

The historical record

656 and 801, the Chinese histories. The treatise on rites and dress in the Book of Sui 隋書, whose treatises the dictionaries date to 656, sets the sword an official wears in attendance against the real one, in the text as Chinese Wikisource transcribes it: 《陪位則像劍。帶真劍者，入宗廟及升殿，若在仗內，皆解劍。》, in attendance they wear an imitation sword; those who wear a real sword take it off on entering the ancestral temple or the hall, or within the guard [14][15]. The Tongdian 通典, a history of institutions finished about 801, gives the same rule, with a gloss, in the same transcription: 《陪位則象劍。木劍也，言其象真劍。》, in attendance, an imitation sword: a wooden sword, so called because it imitates a real sword [16][17]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 cites a note to the 通典, 〔通典注〕, under its first sense, with no quotation; the gloss above may be that note [1]. Chinese thus had 真劍, a real sword, set against a wooden or imitation one, the same opposition the Japanese word makes; whether the Japanese word came from these books or was formed again is not shown by any witness read here.

1687, Ihara Saikaku, Budō denraiki 武道伝来記. A collection of revenge stories, printed in 貞享4 (1687) by the national library's catalogue [18]. One man has said that a blow of the bamboo practice sword leaves no wound and so proves nothing; the other answers. In the print, one column ends 《殊に竹刀で》 and the next runs 《證據乃しれぬとは真剱では拙者え》, with the ruby しんけん beside 真剱 [18]. The typeset of 1894 prints the whole sentence, 《特に竹刀では證據のしれぬとは、眞劔では拙者得いたすまいとおぼすか》, and you say that with a bamboo sword above all no proof shows: do you suppose that with a real sword I could not do it? [19]. This is the earliest example the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives of the blade sense [1], and it already sets the live blade against the practice sword by name.

1703, Kōshoku haidokusan 好色敗毒散, and 1715, Ejima Kiseki 江島其磧. A book of stories of the pleasure quarters by the writer 夜食時分, printed in 1703 [20]. A chapter headed 《あそび歟》, play?, opens on how a living is made, and comes to the trade in 山吹色, the gold-colored stuff: 《真剱乃あきなひ。両替店に紺の長暖簾さげたる家のあるじ。預け銀にて壱匁も損せず。》, the 真剣 trade: the master of a money-changer's house, with its long dark-blue curtain hung, who never lost a single monme on silver left with him, the ruby again しんけん [21]. This is the earliest example the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives of the earnest sense [1], and what the word is said of is not a sword: it is the trade in gold, where genuine, the real thing reads as well as in earnest. Ejima Kiseki, in Seken musuko katagi 世間子息気質, printed in 1715, repeats the sentence nearly word for word, 《山吹色の眞劔商ひ、兩替店に紺の長暖簾下げたる家の主人、預け金にて壹匁も損せず》, in the typeset of 1894 [22][23]: one phrase, in two books.

1730 and 1733, Ejima Kiseki's novels. Two more novels the national library's catalogue gives to Kiseki (the one of 1730 with Jishō 自笑) set the blade against the practice weapon. 富士浅間裾野桜 (1730) sets 《真剱づく》, going at it with real blades, against a sword dance done 《木刀に箔ぬつてふり》, swinging a wooden sword coated in foil [24]. 鬼一法眼虎の巻 (1733) has a man reckon that night killings are the work of 《兵法けいこの者共。真剱を以て人を切て。手の内を試んため》, men who practice swordsmanship, cutting people with real blades to test their grip, and heads a chapter 《真劔の勝負切結んだ主従の縁》, a bout with real blades, and the bond of master and man that crossing swords tied: the phrase, written with の, twenty years before the 精選版 日本国語大辞典's earliest example of the compound 真剣勝負 [25][9].

1735, 渡世身持談義, the figure. A novel the catalogue also gives to Kiseki, printed in 享保20 (1735) [26]. On a riverboat a game of cards, played with an odd pack the boatman brings out, 《布袋屋骨牌》 with the ruby かるた, turns from pastime to high stakes: 《是から木刀の仕相が眞劔になりし如く、慰みは脇へなし》, from here, as a bout with wooden swords becomes one with real blades, play was set aside, and soon five or six hundred ryō in gold are changing hands [26]. The quotation is the typeset's of 1894; the print of 1735 has 《木刀の仕相か真剱に》 and 《慰ハ脇へ》 in the same column [26]. The blade is still the blade here; what turns serious is the game, and the sword gives the figure for it.

1753, the compound. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典's earliest example of 真剣勝負 is from a kabuki play of 1753, 男伊達初買曾我, as the dictionary quotes it: 《なんの用だとは、われゃ最前しさして置いた真剣勝負をうにゃにするか》, "what business?", you say: are you going to drop the 真剣勝負 you left half done a while ago? [9].

1794, 睟のすじ書, the word in speech. A sharebon, a book of the pleasure-quarter talk, with a preface of 寛政6 (1794) and a publisher's leaf of 浪華, Osaka [27]. A guest is settling on a day: 《〔客〕そんなら三日目　〔仲〕ヱヽうそじや　〔客〕しんけん》, 客: then the third day. 仲: oh, that's a lie. 客: しんけん!, the speakers' names boxed in the print [27]. The guest's whole reply is the one word, for real!: this is the 精選版 日本国語大辞典's sense ③, true, no lie, and its earliest example [1]. Earlier in the same book a stage direction has 《たれがいふいのウ　ト　しんけんでいふ》, "who says so?", and says it in earnest [27]. Both uses are in kana, both are about speech, and neither has a sword in it.

1781 and after, 敵討天下茶屋聚, talking plainly. A kabuki play of a revenge, first staged in Osaka in 1781 and much revised [28]; the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 dates the line it quotes 1832 [1]. In the text of the 1928 collection of plays: 《平馬　時に典齋、最早謎や譬へは取りおいて》 / 《典齋　これから眞劍でお話しを。》, 平馬: now, 典齋, enough of riddles and parables. 典齋: from here on, let us talk in earnest, the ruby しんけん [29]. What 眞劍で is set against is roundabout talk.

1888, Fukuchi Ōchi 福地桜痴, もしや草紙. A book by the journalist and playwright, printed in 1888 [30]. 《此方ハ此を晴と眞劍に語る彼方ハ難義の不平の沙汰》, this one tells it as a great occasion, and in earnest; that one grumbles at the trouble, the ruby しんけん [30]. The adverb 眞劍に, in plain prose, with no sword in the passage.

1907, Natsume Sōseki, Gubijinsō 虞美人草. The novel came out in 1907 [31]. In the printing of 1913, 宗近 says to 小野: 《眞面目になつて始めて得られる自覺だ、眞面目とはね、君、眞劒勝負の意味だよ。遣つ付ける意味だよ》, it is an awareness you get only once you are serious. Being serious, you see, means a 眞劒勝負: it means going at it, with the ruby しんけんしようぶ [32]. A novelist defines being serious by the fight with real swords, in so many words: the figure the earnest sense can be read through, stated as a figure.

1913, the adjective before a noun. The form JMdict leads with today, 真剣な before a noun, is in a book on the philosopher Eucken, オイケンの哲学, by 稲毛詛風, printed in 1913: 《然し乍ら彼が人生に對して眞劒な態度と、充實した興味と、緊張した努力とは》, yet his earnest attitude toward life, his full interest and his intense effort … [33]. In the snippets the National Diet Library's full-text index serves, the attributive 眞劍な before a noun is in dialogue by 1893 and common in magazine prose from 1909, while the earlier hits for the same characters are mostly 真剣なら, if it were a real sword [34].

The word in English

1867, Hepburn. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary, p. 409: SHIN-KEN, シンケン, 眞劍, (makoto no tsurugi). n. Real sword, (not a wooden one). — no shō-bu, a duel, or combat with real swords [8]. The blade only.

1896, Brinkley. F. Brinkley's An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, p. 1280: Shinken, しんけん, 眞劍, 實地, n. ① A real sword (in distinction from a wooden one) ② … Real, not ideal; practical, the second sense marked colloquial, with Shinken ni naru, シンケンニ為ル, to become real and the synonyms HOMMA, HONTŌ, MAJIME [11]. The first English dictionary read here to go past the blade, and it does so with real and with MAJIME, not yet with earnest.

1909, Inouye. Inouye's Japanese-English Dictionary, p. 1417: Shinken (眞劍), n. A real sword; reality, with 眞劍の勝負をしやう, Let us fight with real swords, and 眞劍なら君に負けはしない, If in real earnest, I should not be beaten by you [12]. The earnest sense, in an example, through the copula.

1913, Harrison. E. J. Harrison, The Fighting Spirit of Japan, p. 62, of a contest between a boxer and a judo man that never came off: neither the laws of the civilised East nor those of the West permit what the Japanese call a shinken (real fight) [35]. The earliest English text read here, other than a dictionary, to use the word, and it uses it of a fight for real, with no sword.

1922, The Japan Evangelist. A missionary reporting Japanese answers to a survey, October 1922, p. 282: in work and workers they desire "shinken na mono" (to be dead in earnest) [36].

1939, Kenkyusha. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, in the printing of 1939, p. 1684, the two senses headed 劍 and 眞面目: 1. … A real sword … 2. … Seriousness; earnestness. ~na a. Earnest; serious; grave; sober; sincere, with 僕は眞劍なんだ, I mean business, and He set about the work in dead earnest [13].

Today. JMdict gives serious; earnest first and real sword (as opposed to a wooden practice weapon) second [2]. The design is sold as Real Sword. The title renders the first sense the Japanese dictionaries give, the blade; JMdict gives the adjective first, serious, in earnest, and the gloss here leads with it. A rendering of the word should keep both.

A reading

The witnesses read here do not show the earnest sense coming down from the sword in one step. The blade is there from the first, and in each early witness read here it stands against the practice sword (1687, 1730, 1733) [18][24][25]; beside it, from 1703, the same word is said of a trade in gold, where it means the genuine article [21]; and by 1794 it is a word people say, for real!, and a way of saying a thing, in earnest [27]. The sword is a figure for the earnest sense, and the writers drew it as one: a game becoming serious as wooden swords become real in 1735, and Sōseki's being serious means a 眞劒勝負 [26][32]. I read the two senses as one idea from the start, the real thing as against the rehearsal: the live blade against the practice sword, the deal against the play, plain talk against riddles. That is why the word could be spoken before it was written in earnest prose; to say しんけん is to say this is not practice.

A buyer who hangs these two characters has both senses in them, and neither has to be read as the other's figure: each names what is left when the rehearsal ends.

Notes

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Real Sword (shinken3) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
真剣VB2CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Real Sword (shinken3) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
真剣VC2BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Real Sword (shinken3) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
真剣VD2BJiun
Japanese Scroll of Real Sword (shinken3) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
真剣VS3CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

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

References

  1. 「真剣」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/真剣-537225
  2. 真剣 (entry 1363650), JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/真剣
  3. "earnest", Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/earnest
  4. "serious", Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/serious
  5. 深刻 (entry 1362730), JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/深刻
  6. 「真剣」, 将棋用語集, at Weblio. https://www.weblio.jp/content/真剣
  7. 「真剣師」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/真剣師-1740290
  8. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary, Trübner & Co., 1867, p. 409, scan 213. National Diet Library pid 1735285. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1735285/1/213
  9. 「真剣勝負」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 四字熟語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/真剣勝負-537251
  10. 真剣勝負 (entry 1363660), JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/真剣勝負
  11. F. Brinkley and others, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896, p. 1280. Internet Archive cu31924082117288. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288/page/1280
  12. Inouye's Japanese-English Dictionary, Tokyo, 1909, p. 1417. Internet Archive inouyesjapanesee00inou. https://archive.org/details/inouyesjapanesee00inou/page/1417
  13. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, American edition, Harvard University Press, 1942, a photolithograph of the printing of 1939, p. 1684.
  14. 『隋書』 卷11, 禮儀志六, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/隋書/卷11
  15. 「隋書」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/隋書-82942
  16. 杜佑『通典』 卷63, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/通典/卷063
  17. 「通典」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/通典-99332
  18. 井原西鶴『武道伝来記』 巻三, 貞享4 (1687), scan 19. National Diet Library pid 2554416. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554416/1/19
  19. 『西鶴全集』, 博文館, 1894, pp. 792–793, scan 408. National Diet Library pid 1883037. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1883037/1/408
  20. 「好色敗毒散」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/好色敗毒散-1164784
  21. 夜食時分『好色敗毒散』 巻之三 第二, 元禄16 (1703), the 筑波大学附属図書館 copy, canvas 54, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/300069557/54
  22. 江島其磧『世間子息気質』 巻之一 第三, in 『其磧自笑傑作集』, 博文館, 明治27 (1894), p. 95, scan 56. National Diet Library pid 1883810. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1883810/1/56
  23. 「世間子息気質」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/世間子息気質-87036
  24. 其磧, 自笑『富士浅間裾野桜』, 享保15 (1730), scan 9. National Diet Library pid 2554781. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2554781/1/9
  25. 江島其磧『鬼一法眼虎の巻』, 享保18 (1733), scans 73 and 110. National Diet Library pid 2534239. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2534239/1/73 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2534239/1/110
  26. 江島其磧『渡世身持談義』 巻之二, 享保20 (1735), scan 29, National Diet Library pid 2541074; typeset in 『其磧自笑傑作集』, 博文館, 1894, p. 832, scan 425, pid 1883810. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2541074/1/29 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1883810/1/425
  27. 『睟のすじ書』, 寛政6 (1794) preface, the 専修大学図書館 copy, canvases 9 and 16, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/300103770/9 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/300103770/16
  28. 「敵討天下茶屋聚」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/敵討天下茶屋聚-1154522
  29. 「敵討天下茶屋聚」, in 渥美清太郎 編『日本戯曲全集』, 春陽堂, 昭和3 (1928), p. 46, scan 28. National Diet Library pid 1884123. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1884123/1/28
  30. 桜痴居士 (福地源一郎)『もしや草紙』, 文海堂, 1888, p. 217, scan 127. National Diet Library pid 992286. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992286/1/127
  31. 「虞美人草」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/虞美人草-484754
  32. 夏目漱石『虞美人草』, 春陽堂, 大正2 (1913), p. 553, scan 279. National Diet Library pid 932848. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/932848/1/279
  33. 稲毛詛風『オイケンの哲学』, 大同館書店, 大正2 (1913), p. 81, scan 54. National Diet Library pid 951820. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/951820/1/54
  34. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 真剣な, all access levels, sorted oldest first (searched 20 October 2026). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=真剣な
  35. E. J. Harrison, The Fighting Spirit of Japan and Other Studies, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1913, p. 62. Internet Archive india.history.resource.91404. https://archive.org/details/india.history.resource.91404/page/62
  36. The Japan Evangelist, October 1922, p. 282. Internet Archive japanevangelist0000unse_n3u4. https://archive.org/details/japanevangelist0000unse_n3u4/page/282
  37. 神剣 (entry 1765210), JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/神剣

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 真剣 (shinken)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/shinken.