雙劍倚空飛 sōken kū ni yotte tobu Twin Swords Lean on the Sky and Fly

雙劍倚空飛 Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

雙劍倚空飛, sōken kū ni yotte tobu, twin swords, leaning on the sky, fly, is a capping phrase (著語, a short comment written beside the text of a kōan collection) that Engo Kokugon 圜悟克勤 set twice in the 碧巌録, completed in 1125: beside an outsider's two-part question at the sixty-fifth case, and beside the verse's wrong, wrong at the eighty-seventh ^[1][2][3]. The earliest use by a master who taught in Japan that the Taishō canon at SAT and the dated items of the NDL's full-text index show is in the recorded sayings of Jikusen Bonsen 竺仙梵僊, a Chinese master there from 1329 to 1348, after Zhaozhou's giving the same answer twice; in a license the county history that prints it dates to 1567, as does a history of kendo of 1972 by the NDL index's snippet, the sword master Kamiizumi Nobutsuna 上泉信綱 names two swords, 殺人刀太刀 and 活人劍太刀, as the most essential thing of his house, asks which is the better and which the lesser, and says they may be called by the phrase, and his lines issued the same words, with small differences, in 1610 and 1637 ^{[4][5][6][7][8]}. The phrase book 禅林句集, with a postface of 1688, gives it reading marks in its re-cut of 1889, the 槐安國語 of 1749 sets it after a question of 大燈's sermon, prints of 1913 and 1915 read 倚 as よつて, a Zen dictionary of 1915 glosses it as cutting off both heads, being and non-being, and the Clearys' English, copyrighted 1977, renders it Twin swords fly through space ^{[9][10][11][12][13]}. I read it as the figure of a pair whose two members are equally sharp and neither outranks the other, and take 上泉's question as the plainest statement of what each of the five uses I read in context shows.

A reading

The phrase, as the 碧巌録 prints it: 雙劍倚空飛 ^[1].

I read it as the figure of a pair: two blades, equally sharp, leaning on nothing but the sky as they fly, and neither the lesser. Each of the five uses I could read in its context stands on something doubled. In the 碧巌録 of 1125, Engo Kokugon 圜悟克勤 writes it beside an outsider's question that comes in two halves, I do not ask about what has words; I do not ask about what has none, and beside the verse's 錯錯, wrong, wrong, a word said twice, where his next comment is one arrow brings down two eagles ^[1][2]. In the instruction of Jikusen Bonsen 竺仙梵僊, a Chinese master teaching in Japan between 1329 and 1348, it stands after Zhaozhou's second 庭前柏樹子, the cypress tree in front of the hall, the answer given twice to the same question ^[4]. In the 槐安國語 of 1749 it follows a question of 大燈's New Year sermon which, after naming the Buddha's dharma and the world's, asks which one the assembly will nod to ^[10][14]. And the sword master Kamiizumi Nobutsuna 上泉信綱, in the license the county history dates to 1567 and his lines repeated in 1610 and 1637, names two swords, 殺人刀太刀 and 活人劍太刀, the sword that kills and the sword that gives life, as the most essential thing of his house, asks 爲何優爲何劣乎哉, which is the better, which the lesser?, and says they may be called by the phrase ^[5][6][7][8]. I take his use to say in plain words what the Zen uses show: a pair that cannot be ranked. The Zen dictionary of 1915 reads it otherwise: it is said of cutting off both heads, being and non-being, and speaks of the sharpness of a thrust that does not involve either head of the question ^[12]. That reading fits the sixty-fifth case and the 碧巌録's own commentary on it, which says the matter is neither in words nor apart from them ^[1]; I hold it beside mine, and sign mine because it fits each of the five uses read in context, the sword license included.

I sign the reading sōken kū ni yotte tobu, twin swords, leaning on the sky, fly: 倚 as to lean on, the sense the dictionaries give for 倚る ^[15][16], and 空 as the sky the swords fly in, the first sense the 日国 and the 大辞泉 give for くう ^[17]. Both dictionaries also give 空's Buddhist sense, emptiness; a reader of a Zen book may hear it in the word, and the 1915 dictionary's cutting off both heads, being and non-being stands near it, as I read it. I name it beside mine and take the sky, for two reasons. 倚 asks for something to lean on. And the 碧巌録 itself, in Engo's commentary on the verse of its hundredth case, says 尋常道。倚天長劍光能照雪, it is commonly said: the long sword that leans on heaven, its light can shine on snow, where 天, heaven, stands in the place 空 stands here ^[18]; 今北洪川's telling of the sixty-fifth case, in 1892, writes 一劍倚天寒, one sword, leaning on heaven, cold ^[19]. The Clearys render 空 as space ^[13]. Signed, 典.

Overview

The sense. The phrase is a capping phrase, a 著語 or 下語: the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 defines 著語 as 禅宗の典籍の本則や頌などの下句に付ける短評, a short comment attached to the lines of the main case, the verse and the like in Zen texts, and 下語 as 公案や古則などの法語に対して与える短評, a short comment given on the dharma words of a kōan, an old case and the like ^[20][21]; the デジタル大辞泉 names the 碧巌録's 著語 as 部分的短評, short comments on parts, beside its introductions and its commentaries ^[3]. On 7 November 2026, kotobank's headword address returned no page for the phrase or for 双剣, where the same form of address for 碧巌録 and 著語 led to their entries. The one dictionary read that enters it, 山田孝道's 禅宗辞典 of 1915, gives it under サウケン クウ ニ ヨツテ トブ: 有無の兩頭を截斷したることを云ふ … これは問話の兩頭に渉らざる機鋒の鋭利なることをいふ, said of cutting off both heads, being and non-being … it speaks of the sharpness of a thrust that does not involve either head of the question ^[12]. JMdict gives 双剣, sōken, as (wielding) dual swords (esp. in fiction); twin swords ^[22].

The words. 雙 is the old form of 双, a pair, and 劍, 劒, 劔 and 剣 are one character in its forms; the witnesses write 雙劍, 雙劒, 雙劔, 双劔 and 双劍, and Eri's hands write 雙劍. 倚 is to lean on: the 日国 gives よる written 倚・凭 as もたれかかる, to lean against, with the one example it cites, 「脇息によりおはす」 (源氏物語, 帚木), and the 大辞泉 notes that よる in this sense is also written 倚る and 凭る ^[16]; JMdict lists 倚る under 寄る with to lean against, to recline on ^[15]. 空 is read kū, as the 1915 dictionary's kana gives it ^[12]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 enters くう 【空】 first as 天と地の間。そら。空間。虚空(こくう), the space between heaven and earth; the sky; space; the void, and fifth, as a Buddhist word, as the view that every thing between heaven and earth arises from causes and has neither substance nor a nature of its own; the デジタル大辞泉 gives 天と地との間。大空。空間 first and the Buddhist sense, a translation of Sanskrit śūnya, second ^[17]. 飛 is read tobu, the ordinary verb to fly ^[12]. The reading of 倚 as よつて, yotte, is two prints': 加藤咄堂's translation of the 碧巌録 of 1913, in its reading of the line, sets the ruby よ beside 倚 with つて after it, and the dictionary of 1915 writes ヨツテ ^[11][12]. The phrase book whose postface is dated 1688, in its re-cut of 1889, marks the line 雙劔、空ニ倚テ飛ブ, joining 雙劔 as one word and giving 倚 only the kana テ ^[9].

The text in English. Thomas and J. C. Cleary's translation of the 碧巌録, copyrighted 1977, renders the phrase twice, at the sixty-fifth case and the eighty-seventh, as Twin swords fly through space ^[13]. Victor Sōgen Hori's Zen Sand of 2003, an English book of capping phrases for kōan practice, gives its companion at the eighty-seventh case, 一箭落雙鵰, and among the sō entries of its five-character section has none for this phrase ^[23]. David Hinton's Blue Cliff Record of 2024 gives the sixty-fifth and eighty-seventh cases and their verses without Engo's interlinear comments, so it does not render the phrase ^[24]. Of the three English books read (the Clearys' at both cases, Hori's at its sō entries, Hinton's at the two cases and by a search of its text for sword), only the Clearys' renders it.

The historical record

1125. The 碧巌録 (Hekiganroku 碧巌録, The Blue Cliff Record), Engo Kokugon, a kōan collection with comment. The book is Engo's commentary on Setchō Jūken 雪竇重顕's hundred cases and verses, completed in 1125; the oldest print extant is of 1300 ^[3]. At the sixty-fifth case, 外道問佛, an outsider questions the Buddha, Engo writes beside the question ^[1]:

舉。外道問佛。不問有言。不問無言 雖然如是。屋裏人也有些子香氣。雙劍倚空飛。賴是不問

Cited: an outsider asked the Buddha, "I do not ask about what has words; I do not ask about what has none." Engo comments: Even so, a man of the household has a little fragrance about him. Twin swords, leaning on the sky, fly. Luckily he does not ask. The World-Honored One's long silence follows. Engo's commentary on the case says the matter is 不在言句上。亦不離言句中, not in words and phrases, and not apart from them ^[1]. At the eighty-seventh case, beside Setchō's verse line 錯錯, wrong, wrong, he writes 雙劍倚空飛。一箭落雙雕, twin swords, leaning on the sky, fly; one arrow brings down two eagles ^[2]. CBETA's search for the string 雙劍倚空飛 returns these two places only ^[1][2]; SAT's search of the whole Taishō canon finds them and two more, Jikusen's and Hakuin's ^[4][10].

1329–1348. Jikusen Bonsen 竺仙梵僊 (1292–1348), 竺僊和尚語録, a Chinese master's recorded sayings in Japan. Jikusen came to Japan in 1329 and taught at Kamakura and Kyoto until his death in 1348 ^[25]. In an instruction to a disciple, 示小師裔澤知客, he tells how a monk asked Zhaozhou 趙州 the meaning of the patriarch's coming from the west and was told 庭前柏樹子, the cypress tree in front of the hall; the monk objected, the question was put again, and Zhaozhou answered 庭前柏樹子 again; after the second answer Jikusen's text has 雙劍倚空飛, as after the first it has 信手入荒田 ^[4]. The text does not mark whether these words are his own comment or part of the story as he tells it. It is the earliest use by a master who taught in Japan that the Taishō canon at SAT and the dated items of the NDL's full-text index show (three items of the index carry no year); the instruction carries no date of its own.

1567. Kamiizumi Nobutsuna 上泉信綱 (1508–1577?), the sword license the county history calls of the 眞影流. Kamiizumi, founder of the 新陰流 school of swordsmanship, gave his pupil Marume Kurando 丸目藏人佐 a license of the school's highest teaching, which the county history of Kuma, printed in 1941, calls 眞影流極意の免許狀, the license of the 眞影流's highest teaching, dates 永祿十年二月, the second month of 1567, and prints with the two swords it names, 殺人刀太刀 and 活人劍太刀, the sword that kills and the sword that gives life ^[26][5]. The encyclopedia places his licenses to Marume and others in 1565 and the year after; the 1567 date is the county history's ^[26][5]. A history of kendo of 1972, by the index's snippet, gives the date 永禄拾年二月吉日 inside the license, with Kamiizumi's 花押, his written monogram, and says the license was then held by the Marume family ^[6]. The same words, with small differences, were issued in 1610, in a 目錄 printed in hand facsimile in 1925 as the 匹田 line's, and in a scroll of 1637 in another of his lines, which writes it so ^[7][8]:

右此兩劔者家之至要也 為何優為何劣乎哉可謂双劍倚空飛学者輕莫用之 上州住人上泉伊勢守藤原信綱 判

These two swords above are the most essential thing of the house. Which is the better, which the lesser? They may be called twin swords leaning on the sky, flying. Let no student use them lightly. Kamiizumi Ise no kami Fujiwara no Nobutsuna, of Kōzuke, signed (判). The copies differ in small words: the 1637 scroll alone opens with 右, above, and has 乎 and no 我; the 1941 print writes 我家之至要也, the most essential thing of my house, and 乎; the 1610 目錄 writes 我 and has neither 也 nor 乎; every copy read writes 双, not 雙 ^[5][7][8].

1688. The 禅林句集, a phrase book of Zen lines, in its re-cut of 1889. The 禅林句集, issued under the name of 英朝 (1428–1504; 英朝禪師編輯 on its title leaf), with a postface dated the first month of 貞享戊辰, 1688, was re-cut and published at Nagoya in September 1889 ^[9][27]. Among its five-character lines it prints the line with reading marks, 雙劔、空ニ倚テ飛ブ, and the source note 碧六十五則下語, the capping phrase of the sixty-fifth case of the 碧巌録; on the same leaf stand 一箭落雙鵰 and 一佛二菩薩 ^[9].

1749. The 槐安國語, Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴, a commentary on the recorded sayings of Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超 (大燈国師). Hakuin made the 槐安國語 in 1749, a commentary on the sayings of 大燈, and it was printed the next year ^[28]. 大燈's New Year sermon names one thing the Buddha's dharma, to which the whisk nods, and one the world's dharma, to which the staff nods, and asks 且道。諸人孰與阿那箇點頭, say, then: which one will you all nod to? ^[14]. In the 槐安國語 Hakuin sets his comments into that sermon, each after a circle, and the phrase stands after the question: 且道。諸人孰與阿那個點頭 ○ 雙劍倚空飛 ^[10]. The lines after the circles, among them two persons, one on the summit of a lone peak and one at the crossroads, are absent from 大燈's own recorded sayings, so I take them, and the phrase, to be Hakuin's ^[10][14].

1892–1920. Meiji and Taishō Zen books. 今北洪川 (宗慍)'s 蒼竜広録 of 1892, by the index's snippet, tells the sixty-fifth case with the outsider as 長爪梵志 and adds 兩頭共截斷 一劍倚天寒, both heads are cut off together; one sword, leaning on heaven, cold ^[19]. 秋山悟庵's 禅と武士道 of 1907, by the index's snippet, writes 雙劔倚空飛は碧岩六十五則の下語で, 雙劔倚空飛 is the capping phrase of the sixty-fifth case of the 碧巌録 ^[29]. 加藤咄堂's 和訳碧巌録 of 1913 prints the eighty-seventh case's comment as 双劔倚レ空飛 and reads it 雙劒空に倚つて飛ぶ。一箭に雙鵰を落す, with the ruby よ on 倚 ^[11]. 山田孝道's 禅宗辞典 of 1915 enters it as 雙劒倚レ空飛 and glosses it (The sense) ^[12]. 新撰書家宝典 of 1920, a calligrapher's handbook by its title, by the index's snippet lists it between 落日天風寒 and 白浪起靑岑 ^[30].

雙劍倚空飛 in English

1977. Thomas and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, translation © 1977, pp. 364 and 479 of the Shambhala paperback of 2005. At the sixty-fifth case, note 1: Although he is not a member of the household, still he has a bit of a fragrant air. Twin swords fly through space. It's lucky he doesn't ask. At the eighty-seventh, under the verse's Wrong! Wrong!: Twin swords fly through space. A single arrow fells two eagles ^[13]. Not a member of the household renders, as I read it, a text with 不是, is not, where the Taishō text has 雖然如是。屋裏人, even so, a man of the household ^[1][13]. Fly through space keeps the flying and renders 空 as space; the leaning, 倚, is not rendered.

2003. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press. Hori gives the companion line at the eighty-seventh case, 一箭落雙鵰, as With one arrow he shoots down two hawks (5.29, p. 182), and its five-character section, arranged by Japanese reading, has no entry for 雙劍倚空飛 among its sō entries (5.217–5.222, p. 203) ^[23].

Today. JMdict gives 双剣 as twin swords, among its senses, and 倚る as to lean against ^[22][15]. Eri Takase brushes the phrase as 雙劍倚空飛, in the old forms of 雙 and 劍. The house's working English, Twin swords lean on the sky and fly, renders the same words as the gloss above, with the leaning and the flying as two verbs. A rendering should keep the pair, the leaning and the flying.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

雙劍倚空飛VB5JBlock

雙劍倚空飛VC5JCursive

雙劍倚空飛VD5JEri's Choice

雙劍倚空飛VS5JSemi-Cursive

References

1. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』, 卷第七, 第六十五則, Taishō 48, no. 2003, 195b26–c15, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/lines?linehead=T48n2003_p0195b27
2. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』, 卷第九, 第八十七則, Taishō 48, no. 2003, 212b17, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/lines?linehead=T48n2003_p0212b17
3. 「碧巌録」, デジタル大辞泉, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 and 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/碧巌録-129179
4. 『竺僊和尚語録』, 示小師裔澤知客, Taishō 80, no. 2554, 391c03–c06, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2554_.80.0391c03:0391c06.cit
5. 『球磨郡誌』, 熊本県教育会球磨郡教育支会, 1941, 第十四章 人物誌, p. 783, scan 444. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1042262/1/444
6. 富永堅吾, 『剣道五百年史』, 1972, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12150209
7. 下川潮, 『劒道の發達』, 大日本武德會本部, 1925, 附錄 第一類, 慶長十五年の匹田新影流の目錄 (contents, scan 200), pp. 18–19, scan 207. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1017872/1/207
8. 『新陰流殺人刀巻』, 1 scroll, 寛永14 (1637), 日本体育大学 民和文庫 (DIG-NSSU-00327), imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvas 6. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100351838/6
9. 英朝, 『増補頭書 禪林句集』, 乾, 文光堂 (梶田勘助), Nagoya, 1889, title leaf scan 3 (英朝禪師編輯 … 文光堂藏) and scan 45. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/45
10. 白隠慧鶴, 『槐安國語』, Taishō 81, no. 2574, 548c13–c19, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2574_.81.0548c13:0548c19.cit
11. 加藤咄堂 訳註, 『和訳碧巌録 : 詳註』, 1913, pp. 766–767 (the kanbun line on p. 766, the reading on p. 767), scan 395. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/943839/1/395
12. 山田孝道, 『禅宗辞典』, 1915, p. 348, scan 310. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/936741/1/310
13. Thomas and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, translation © 1977, Shambhala, Boston, first paperback edition, 2005, Sixty-fifth Case, note 1, p. 364; Eighty-seventh Case, p. 479.
14. 『大燈國師語録』, Taishō 81, no. 2566, 215a21–a25, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2566_.81.0215a21:0215a25.cit
15. JMdict entry 1219680, 寄る · 倚る · 凭る, yoru, in the local copy of the EDRDG data.
16. 「寄る」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 ⑤ and デジタル大辞泉 5, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/寄る-654466
17. 「空」 (くう), デジタル大辞泉 1–2 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典 ① and ⑤, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/空-54809
18. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』, 卷第十, 第一百則, the commentary on the verse, Taishō 48, no. 2003, 224a24–a25, at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/lines?linehead=T48n2003_p0224a25
19. 今北宗慍, 『蒼竜広録』, 1892, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823335
20. 「著語」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/著語-286704
21. 「下語」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/下語-2001092
22. JMdict entry 2869882, 双剣, sōken, in the local copy of the EDRDG data.
23. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003, p. 182 (5.29) and pp. 202–203 (5.208–5.225).
24. David Hinton, The Blue Cliff Record, Shambhala, 2024, the sixty-fifth and eighty-seventh cases.
25. 「竺仙梵僊」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/竺仙梵僊-1079914
26. 「上泉信綱」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/上泉信綱-883761
27. 英朝, 『増補頭書 禪林句集』, 坤, 文光堂 (梶田勘助), Nagoya, 1889, colophon and postface, scan 80. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899716/1/80
28. 「槐安国語」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/槐安国語-1515314
29. 秋山悟庵, 『禅と武士道』, 1907, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823244
30. 諸井春畦, 『新撰書家宝典』, 1920, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1210297

Books Cited

Books this article cites that can be ordered today.

• Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003, p. 182 (5.29) and pp. 202–203 (5.208–5.225). (2003) — Buy on Amazon

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.

Checked · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-11-07, citations — the cited web addresses opened and the quoted words looked for at each: 49 claims, 22 answered with the words sought, 5 differed and 1 not resolved, each judged at the page image or the source text; the rest outside its reach (snippet items, shelf books and page images, read by eye) · two fresh-context readers per round (Claude), 2026-11-07, every claim in the page's summary block, the abstract and the signed reading traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 FAIL on one wrong fact (the sword license said to borrow the words from the 碧巌録, which no source shows), corrected; round 2 FAIL on one wrong fact (two persons set in 大燈's sermon, where they stand in Hakuin's commentary), corrected from 大燈's own recorded sayings; round 3 PASS, both; wordings applied

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · November 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 雙劍倚空飛 (sōken kū ni yotte tobu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/soken-ku-ni-yotte-tobu.