Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

0
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › Carry Your First Aim Through to the End

初志貫徹 shoshi kantetsu Carry Your First Aim Through to the End

初志貫徹 (shoshi kantetsu) means carrying the aim one first set through to the end. It is a Meiji shortening of 初志を貫徹する, and the National Diet Library's full text finds the four characters from about 1895. This study follows it through people pressing a cause, the ethics books and the English dictionaries.

Japanese Scroll of Carry Your First Aim Through to the End (shoshi kantetsu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Carry Your First Aim Through to the End初志貫徹shoshi kantetsu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

All Fonts ›

Abstract

初志貫徹, read shoshi kantetsu, means carrying the aim one first set through to the end; JMdict gives it as carrying out one's original intention [1][2]. It is not a Chinese saying but a Meiji shortening of 初志を貫徹する, one of a family of 貫徹 phrases that runs from a government order of 1869, which told a band of loyalist village samurai to carry their long-held aim through by handing over men of their own band who had killed a councillor, to the vow of a graduating science student in 1891, printed in the government gazette, to carry his class's first aim through [3][4]. The earliest known use of the four characters, in the National Diet Library's full text, is in a journal issue of late 1895 or soon after, where fourteen doctors who had resigned their posts together held a banquet to mark that they had carried their first aim through, and for thirty years after that they are most often the word of people pressing a cause against those above them: peasants in a local history, the young men of the 水平社 signing in blood, a workers' committee calling a thousand steelworkers to a meeting [5][6][7][8]. My reading, signed below, is that the four characters are a vow made in public against resistance, and that a graduate can take them in the sense the 1891 student gave the phrase.

Overview

The sense. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 at kotobank defines 初志貫徹 as 最初に思い立ったこころざしを最後までつらぬきとおすこと, carrying the aim one first set through to the end, notes that it takes する as a verb, and gives two modern examples, a novel by Mizukami Tsutomu 水上勉 of 1965 and an essay on mahjong by Nakajima Azusa 中島梓 of 1981 [1]. JMdict enters it as carrying out one's original intention [2]. The デジタル大辞泉 has no entry for the four characters at kotobank, but it uses them as an example under 貫徹, and it gives 「初志を貫徹する」 as its example under 初志 [9][10].

The words. 初志 is the aim one set at first: the デジタル大辞泉 gives 初めに思い立った希望や考え。最初の志, the hope or idea one first conceived; one's first aim, and the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives 最初に思い立ったこころざし。もとからの志望。初心。初一念 [10]. The 日本国語大辞典's earliest Japanese example is Rai San'yō 頼山陽's 日本外史 of 1827, of the Mongol emperor who meant to carry out his first design against Japan, 而元主必欲遂初志; it names the Chinese source as Cao Zhi 曹植's 黄初六年令, and the 普及版 字通 quotes Cao Zhi's line [10]. 貫徹 is to carry through. The 日本国語大辞典 gives it two senses in one entry: to run through from beginning to end, with an example from Itō Jinsai 伊藤仁斎's 語孟字義 of 1705, a principle that runs through past and present, 貫徹古今; and to carry a principle, a demand or a policy through, with an example from Suehiro Tetchō 末広鉄腸's political novel 花間鶯 of 1887–88, in which a member's motion is not carried, 遂に貫徹 (クヮンテツ) せずして [9]. The デジタル大辞泉 gives only the second sense, with the examples 「要求を貫徹する」, to carry a demand, and 「初志貫徹」 [9]. The native verb 貫く, to pierce, to carry through, has the same sense of keeping to a first intention to the end from Suehiro's 雪中梅 of 1886, 親の素志も貫き [11].

A family of phrases. 初志貫徹 is one of several pairs of a word for an aim and 貫徹, among them 素志貫徹, carrying a long-held aim through. In the National Diet Library's full text, searched oldest first for this history, 素志貫徹 and the verb phrase 初志を貫徹する are both found before the four characters (The historical record).

What follows. The historical record reads 初志 in Chinese, then the family in Meiji Japan in the order found: an order of the new government, a book's preface, an ethics lesson, a graduation, the four characters at a celebration, and the causes that carried them; then the ethics books, today, and the English. A reading is mine.

The historical record

初志 in Chinese, and no 初志貫徹

初志 is old. Cao Zhi 曹植, a prince of Wei, wrote in a decree of the sixth year of 黄初 (225), after he had been slandered and pardoned, that he wished to take up his former work again and keep his first aim. In the 四部叢刊 print of his collected works the line reads [12]:

故欲修吾往業守吾初志

So I wish to take up my old work again and keep my first aim. The verb there is 守, to keep; in Rai San'yō's Japanese prose in Chinese of 1827 it is 遂, to carry out (The words) [10]. The four characters 初志貫徹 are not in the Buddhist canon (CBETA) or in the Chinese texts at Wikisource, searched for this history, and 貫徹 does not follow 初志 in either.

The state's order, 1869

The oldest member of the family found for this history is 素志貫徹, in the government's own gazette. On the fifth day of the first month of 1869 the councillor Yokoi Shōnan 横井小楠 (Heishirō 平四郎) was killed in Kyoto [13][14]. Some of the killers were men of the 十津川 郷士, the village samurai of Totsukawa, a band known for its loyalty to the court. The 太政官日誌 for the second number of that year prints the government's order to them, which speaks of the killing as 去ル五日, on the fifth just past. It says they have heard of the band's deep loyalty; that men of its company had killed an official of the court, against the court's law; and it asks whether the band had lost its loyalist aim, 勤王之素志ヲ失ヒ如何之儀ニ候哉. Then it orders them [3]:

依テ只管右名前之者探索致シ早々召捕差出弥從來之素志貫徹可為致旨屹度申付候事

You are therefore strictly ordered to search out the men named, arrest them at once and hand them over, and so carry your long-held aim through. The ruby on 貫徹 reads クワンテツ. The aim is loyalty to the court; carrying it through means giving up men of one's own band.

A book to finish, 1882

The first dated 初志ヲ貫徹 found for this history is a private one. The compiler of 本朝政体, a handbook of the government and its new laws, closes the preface of its second part, dated September 1882, by saying that he is ill, that he has checked his old draft against the new laws between doses of medicine, and that he publishes it for now under the title 本朝政体 後編 [15]:

他日宿痾痊癒ノ後追補シテ初志ヲ貫徹センヿヲ期スルナリ

When my long illness is cured some day, I mean to add to it and carry my first aim through. The first aim is the book he set out to write. The library's record gives the compiler, 四屋純三郎, the dates 1854–1884 [16].

A lesson, 1886

An ethics book for teachers to give orally to children, 修身口授用書, edited by 西野古海 and published in 1886, has a story headed 素志貫徹シテ名ヲ揚シ話, the story of a man who carried his long-held aim through and made his name [17]. It is the story of Guo Dan 郭丹 of the Later Han, from the 後漢書. As a young man he bought a pass to go in through the Hangu barrier to study in the capital, and swore that he would not go back out through it unless he rode in an envoy's carriage: 使者ノ車ニ乘ラサレバ終ニ關ヲ出ズ. Later he went back to his home province as an envoy, holding the emperor's tally, 果シテ其志ノ如シ, just as he had resolved [17][18]. The story the lesson tells is the shape of 初志貫徹: an aim set at the start and carried through to the end.

A graduate's vow, 1891

On 6 July 1891 the College of Science of the Imperial University held the first graduation of its 簡易講習科, a short course, 理科大學ニ於テハ本月六日簡易講習科第一囘卒業證書授與式ヲ擧行セリ; the government gazette, the 官報, reported it on 9 July [19]. After the dean's address the representative of the graduates, 石川一男, himself listed among the course's honors graduates, read the class's reply [19][4]. It thanks the teachers and the officials present, and says that the graduates will either stay on to study or go out into teaching and work for the spread of science. It closes [4]:

語ニ曰ク精神一到何事カ成ヲサラント生等駑ナリト雖モ將ニ不撓不屈專ラ其初志ヲ貫徹シ以テ成功ヲ他日ニ期セント欲ス

The saying goes: when the spirit goes all the way, what cannot be done? Dull as we are, we mean, unbending and unbowed, to carry our first aim through and look to success another day. The gazette prints 成ヲサラント where the saying has 成ラサラン, what cannot be done. A collection of congratulatory addresses, 近世名家祝文集, published the same year, reprints the whole ceremony, the reply dated 6 July 1891 and signed by 石川一男 as the graduates' representative [20]. Within the year the vow stood in a collection of such addresses.

Two years later 西村天囚, in 怪男児 (1893), has a speaker say of Saigō Takamori at the end that this was not the place to die, and that he would carry his first aim through to the last, 飽まで初志を貫徹せねば置かぬ; the ruby reads 初志 as しよし [21].

The four characters: a celebration, 1895

The earliest known 初志貫徹 as four characters, in the National Diet Library's full text searched oldest first, is in issue 27 of 医談, a medical journal, quoting the 國家醫學會雜誌 [5]. The library's record gives the issue no date; its own pages carry a table of cases of sickness among soldiers from March to May 1895, and the page that carries the passage also carries a notice of a meeting of 22 September 1895, so the issue is no earlier than late September 1895. Fourteen named doctors had resigned together from their posts as ward doctors, quarantine doctors and contract doctors; five more gave up quarantine duty only, and one stayed. When the city council and the Metropolitan Police (警視廳) saw that there was no way to change their minds, they accepted the fourteen resignations. On the evening of the 27th the fourteen met at the 安万樓 in 木挽町, reported on their campaign, and held a great banquet to celebrate that they had carried their first aim through, singing songs of victory. What the doctors resigned over is not settled, and the 國家醫學會雜誌 it quotes was not found [5].

Causes pressed upward

The oldest book with 初志貫徹 that the library's record dates is 松本繁昌記, a local history of Matsumoto published in 1898 [6]. It tells of the rising of the domain's peasants in 1686, the 加助騒動, over a heavier way of collecting the rice tax [22]: after the domain had issued a memorandum, many still meant to carry their first aim through, a bale husked down to two to five shō (二斗五升挽); on the eighteenth the domain's elders granted it under their seals, and the leaders, 加助 among them, were afterwards crucified [6][22].

The two uses read at the page for this history from the 1920s are of the same kind. The national 水平社, the movement of Japan's outcaste communities for equality, was founded on 3 March 1922 [23]. A book of 1924 by Kurisu Shichirō 栗須七郎, quoting the movement's magazine 『水平』, tells how the young men of one Kyoto district who had been at the founding congress tried to found a prefectural 水平社, found few among the communities' educated men to answer them, and grew angry [7]:

これに憤激せる青年諸氏は、益々初志貫徹の決意を固め各々血判を以て誓文し

Angered by this, the young men set their resolve to carry their first aim through all the more firmly, and each swore an oath sealed in blood. The ruby reads the four characters しよしくわんてつ [7]. In 1922, in a dispute at the 住友製鋼所 steelworks in Osaka, the workers' committee read the company's answer to the workers in the canteen, a thousand of them, and called them to a meeting, as the city's report on the dispute prints it [8]:

吾々は初志貫徹の爲めには最善の努力を盡すべく

We will make every effort to carry our first aim through; they were to meet at a theatre at seven that evening, where the next step would be decided [8]. A book of 1916 uses the four characters of a candidate who stood for the Diet again and again and was elected on the sixth try [24].

The ethics books: endurance

The ethics books taught the aim as a matter of endurance. A middle-school ethics textbook by Inoue Tetsujirō 井上哲次郎 and 大島義脩, published in 1903, defines endurance, under 忍耐, with the native verb [25]:

忍耐とは困難に出合ひて屈することなく、初志を貫く勇氣をいふ。

Endurance is the courage not to give in when you meet hardship, and to carry your first aim through. A book on self-cultivation of 1923 says that endurance is the secret of 初志貫徹 [26].

Today

The two kotobank examples, of 1965 and 1981, are a novelist's and an essayist's [1]. In the article titles indexed by CiNii Research the campaign use has gone on: a newspaper of 1921 on the action committee of a higher technical school, 初志貫徹に懸命, working hard to carry its first aim through [27], and the seamen's union's journal in 2023 and 2024, whose spring wage offensive ran under the heading 海員春闘 初志貫徹 [28]. A business weekly in 2016 headed a piece on Maebashi High School in Gunma 初志貫徹の進学校, a university-preparatory school of 初志貫徹 [29].

In English

The English came with the dictionaries. Brinkley's dictionary of 1896 heads 貫徹 under the old spelling Kwantetsu suru: to penetrate, permeate; to be understood (as one's will), and to carry through; to perform; to accomplish [30]. Takenobu Yoshitarō 武信由太郎's Japanese-English dictionary of 1918, published by Kenkyūsha, gives under shoshi (初志) one's original intention (purpose, aim), and renders 初志を貫く, with the native verb, to carry out one's intention; realize one's desire [31]. Carry out one's original intention is under shoshi in Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary of 1931, in the Internet Archive's full-text highlights [32]; in the edition of 1974, in the same highlights, it stands against 初志を貫徹する [33]. JMdict's carrying out one's original intention for the four characters is that phrase [2].

Charles Corwin's Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents (1968) enters the phrase with 初心, the first heart, not 初志: shoshin o kantetsu suru 初心を貫徹する, carry out the original plan; follow through with the original plan, marked with an L, a word or phrase not normally spoken but employed in the written style [34]. An English study of Japanese moral education of 1997 writes that in the prewar period accomplishing one's work was shoshi kantetsu (attaining one's original intention), as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it; the book is lent, not open [35].

A reading

I read 初志貫徹 as a vow made in public, against resistance, and I think its history bears that out.

Every early use read here has someone or something in the way. The 十津川 men had to give up their own; the sick author had his illness; Guo Dan had the barrier; the doctors had the city and the police; the 水平社's young men had a district that would not join; the steelworkers had the company. The first aim is the one set before the resistance came, and 貫徹 is carrying it through the resistance and out the other side. What the four characters add to 精神一到, which the 1891 student set just before them, is time: not a single effort but an aim kept from the beginning to the end.

That is why I think the graduate's sense is honest and not a modern softening. The 1891 student said it aloud, before his teachers and the officials of the university, on behalf of his class, of the aim they had set when they entered. The four characters were in the mouths of people pressing a cause before they were a school's motto, and a graduate who brushes them is making the same kind of promise: that the aim set at the start will still be held at the end.

Notes

Not Chinese. 初志 is classical Chinese; 初志貫徹 is not, in the Chinese and Buddhist texts searched for this history (初志 in Chinese). The four characters are a Meiji shortening of 初志を貫徹する.

Earliest is scoped. The earliest known is a statement about the National Diet Library's full text, searched oldest first; the date of the issue of 医談 of 1895 comes from its own pages, not from the library's record [5].

初心貫徹. Written with 初心, the first heart, for 初志, the phrase is in print too: in the library's text, a petition printed in a compilation of laws in 1890 asks leave for 初心貫徹 [36], Corwin enters 初心を貫徹する in 1968 [34], and a book title of 2024 carries 「初心貫徹」 [37]. Usage pages on the web call it a mistake for 初志貫徹, 「初心貫徹」は「初志貫徹」の間違い [38]; no dictionary read for this history says so.

A campaign's word first. In the uses found for this history, the four characters were a campaign's word before they were a school's: most of those from 1895 to 1922 are of resignations, a rising, an oath and a labor dispute, and one, of 1916, is of a candidate for the Diet; no school motto was found for this history (The four characters; Causes pressed upward).

Sources not seen

The 國家醫學會雜誌 issue that 医談 quotes: not reached in the National Diet Library's full text.

The page images of 医談 no. 27, 松本繁昌記, 近世名家祝文集, 立志道話 and 新しき修養: the library could not serve them on 6 October 2026.

The textbook volume that Khan 1997 cites for shoshi kantetsu: the book is lent, not open.

The edition history of Kenkyūsha's dictionary between 1918 and 1974 at the page: only the 1918 page was read.

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

References

  1. 「初志貫徹」, 四字熟語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/初志貫徹-2236946
  2. JMdict (EDRDG), the release file of 1 October 2026, entries 1342760 初志貫徹, 1342750 初志 and 1215090 貫徹.
  3. 『太政官日誌』 明治二年 第二, the order to the 十津川郷士, folio 〇九, scan 20. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/787634/1/20
  4. 『官報』 第2407號, 9 July 1891, p. 92, the graduates' reply, scan 3. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2945669/1/3
  5. 『医談』 no. 27, 私立奨進医会, undated in the library's record (no earlier than late September 1895 by its own pages), quoting the 國家醫學會雜誌, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1498803
  6. 山内実太郎, 『松本繁昌記』, 1898, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/765314
  7. 栗須七郎, 『水平の行者』, 1924, p. 235, quoting the magazine 『水平』, scan 123. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1021252/1/123
  8. 大阪市社会部調査課, 『本市内外に於ける最近労働争議顛末』, 1922, p. 131, scan 71. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1915428/1/71
  9. 「貫徹」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/貫徹-470894
  10. 「初志」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/初志-534549
  11. 「貫く」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/貫く-572091
  12. 曹植, 黄初六年令, in 『曹子建集』 卷第八, 四部叢刊 (the Ming movable-type edition of the 江安傅氏雙鑑樓), page 50 of the scan at Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sibu_Congkan0585-%E6%9B%B9%E6%A4%8D-%E6%9B%B9%E5%AD%90%E5%BB%BA%E9%9B%86-2-2.djvu&page=50
  13. 「横井小楠」, 日本大百科全書 and other dictionaries, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/横井小楠-22088
  14. 『太政官日誌』 明治二年 第二, the notice of the killing of 横井平四郎, folio 〇八, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/787634/1/19
  15. 四屋純三郎 編, 『本朝政体』 後編, the preface, 明治十五年九月 (1882), scan 5. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/900706/1/5
  16. 国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション, the item record of 『本朝政体 : 一名・新法提要』 (四屋, 純三郎, 1854-1884). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/900706
  17. 西野古海 編, 南摩綱紀 閲, 『修身口授用書』 初編 巻之上, 1886, p. 12, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/756462/1/21
  18. 西野古海 編, 南摩綱紀 閲, 『修身口授用書』 初編 巻之上, 1886, p. 13, scan 22. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/756462/1/22
  19. 『官報』 第2407號, 9 July 1891, p. 91, ○教育, scan 2. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2945669/1/2
  20. 木沢良吉, 『近世名家祝文集』, 1891, 理科大學簡易科卒業式, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/865606
  21. 西村天囚 (時彦), 『怪男児』, 1893, 第十一回, pp. 78–79, scan 43. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/885806/1/43
  22. 「加助騒動」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and 山川 日本史小辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/加助騒動-1154289
  23. 「全国水平社」, 共同通信ニュース用語解説 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/全国水平社-549891
  24. 橘刺紅, 『立志道話』, 1916, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/913498
  25. 井上哲次郎, 大島義脩, 『中学修身教科書』 巻之一, 文学社, 1903, 第八課 忍耐, p. 21, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/757740/1/19
  26. 小林鶯里, 『新しき修養』, 1923, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/977150
  27. 中外商業新報, 29 January 1921, 「首相の「調査中」と聞いて高工側更に躍起 : 実行委員は学校商議員を歴訪して初志貫徹に懸命」, at CiNii Research (the title only). https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390587970417593472
  28. 全日本海員組合, 『海員』, March 2024, 「関東地方支部管内 海員春闘 初志貫徹 現場組合員の雇用と生活を守る!」, at CiNii Research (the title only; the same heading stands on the issue of March 2023). https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520299616453700736
  29. 『エコノミスト』, 13 September 2016, 「名門高校の校風と人脈(207)前橋高校(群馬県立・前橋市) 群馬最古・初志貫徹の進学校」, at CiNii Research (the title only). https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1521980704807810432
  30. F. Brinkley, Nanjō Bun'yū and others, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, 1896, s.v. Kwantetsu suru, in the Internet Archive's text. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288
  31. 武信由太郎 編, 『武信和英大辞典』 (Takenobu's Japanese-English Dictionary), 研究社, 1918, p. 1910, s.v. shoshi, scan 957. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/925665/1/957
  32. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Kenkyusha, 1931, s.v. shoshi, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/kenkyushasnewjap0000senk
  33. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Kenkyusha, 1974, s.v. shoshi, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it (the scans are lent, not open). https://archive.org/details/kenkyushasnewjap0000unse_l8f9
  34. Charles Corwin, general editor, A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents, Kodansha International, 1968, pp. 174–175, under mokuteki, s.v. shoshin o kantetsu suru, and p. xiv.
  35. Yoshimitsu Khan, Japanese Moral Education Past and Present, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it (the scans are lent, not open). https://archive.org/details/japanesemoraledu0000khan
  36. 内閣記録局 編, 『法規分類大全』, 1890, in the National Diet Library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/994192
  37. 『岡田彰布眠れる力を引き出す言葉 : 「初心貫徹」で生きる80のヒント』, 2024, at CiNii Research (the title only). https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1970304959900333626
  38. 「「初心貫徹」と「初志貫徹」の違いとは？分かりやすく解釈」, 違い比較辞典, read October 2026. https://chigai-hikaku.com/?p=19528

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 初志貫徹 (shoshi kantetsu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/shoshi-kantetsu.