What shuriken literally means (手裏剣)

Shuriken (手裏剣) are the small throwing blades of Japanese martial arts, the “throwing stars” of ninja films. The word is three kanji: 手, hand, 裏, inside, and 剣, blade. A shuriken is a blade you hold inside your hand, small enough to keep hidden until the moment you throw it.

What the kanji say

手 (te, shu) is a hand. It began as a drawing of one, with the fingers spread at the top and the arm below. In 手裏剣 it takes its Chinese-style reading, shu.

裏 (ura, ri) means the back, the inside, or the hidden side of something. Look closely and you’ll see 衣, clothing, split open around 里, which gives the sound. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, defines it as “the inside of a garment”, the lining. In 手裏剣 it’s read ri and means “within”, the same way it’s used in 秘密裏 (himitsuri), in secret.

剣 (ken, tsurugi) is a sword or blade, especially a double-edged one. The 刂 on its right is a knife, and the left side gives the sound. It’s the ken in kendo (剣道), the way of the sword.

So 手裏剣 is an “in-the-hand blade”, and the idea of hiding comes naturally with 裏, which so often means the side you can’t see. In English the name is sometimes translated “hand-hidden blade”, which is just what the video says.

What shuriken really were

There were two main kinds. Bou shuriken (棒手裏剣) were straight iron spikes, sharpened at one or both ends. Flat shuriken, also called shaken (車剣), were thin metal plates with sharpened points, cut into crosses, stars and other shapes.

They’re famous as ninja weapons, but samurai and martial artists carried them too, mostly as a backup to the sword: something to throw at an opponent’s face or hands to distract him. The earliest school known to have taught the art of throwing them, the Ganritsu-ryuu, was active in the 1600s.

Martial artists don’t “throw” a shuriken, either. The verb is 打つ (utsu), to strike: 手裏剣を打つ (shuriken o utsu). Novels sometimes use 投げる (nageru), to throw, instead, because 打つ sounds unfamiliar to most readers.

How to use it

• 道場で手裏剣を打つ練習をした。

  Doujou de shuriken o utsu renshuu o shita.

  I practised throwing shuriken at the dojo.

• 折り紙で手裏剣を作ろう！

  Origami de shuriken o tsukurou!

  Let's make shuriken out of origami!

• 忍者が手裏剣を投げた。

  Ninja ga shuriken o nageta.

  The ninja threw a shuriken.

• 真剣に考えてください。

  Shinken ni kangaete kudasai.

  Please think about it seriously.

• Throwing star is the usual English nickname. In Japanese, the star-shaped and spike-shaped kinds are all 手裏剣.
• Origami shuriken are paper ones, folded from origami paper, as in the second example.
• 真剣 (shinken) means serious, but it’s literally a “real sword”, as opposed to a wooden practice one. 真剣勝負 (shinken shoubu) is a contest fought with real swords, or anything done in deadly earnest.
• 裏 on its own is everyday Japanese: the back or reverse side of something, as in 裏口 (uraguchi), the back door.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Close your hand (手) around something small, and keep it inside (裏) your fist. When you open your fingers, there’s a blade (剣). That’s 手裏剣: a sword hidden in the hand.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Wikipedia (Japanese): 手裏剣
• Wikipedia: Shuriken
• Dong Chinese: 裏

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.