口伝

• 読み: くでん
• ローマ字: kuden
• 漢字の分解: 口 (ku) — mouth, oral; 伝 (den) — transmit, tradition, pass down
• 発音: /kɯ.deɴ/

意味

Oral tradition; oral instruction; knowledge, technique, or lore transmitted verbally from teacher to student across generations.

A noun for the practice of passing down knowledge exclusively through spoken instruction, without written documentation. In Japanese martial arts (武道), performing arts (能, 茶道), and religious traditions (密教), the most essential secrets were deliberately withheld from written texts and conveyed only in person. 口伝 thus implies both secrecy and intimacy in the teacher-student relationship. The term also refers to the body of knowledge so transmitted.

例文

1. 武道の奥義は文書ではなく口伝によって師から弟子へと受け継がれた。
2. 口伝でしか伝わらない技術は、後継者がいなくなると失われてしまう危険がある。
3. 民俗学者は各地で口伝を採集し、消えかけた文化を記録した。

使い方ガイド

場面: folklore, martial arts, performing arts, religious tradition

トーン: scholarly

起源と歴史

Sino-Japanese compound. 口 means 'mouth, oral' and 伝 means 'transmit, pass down, tradition'. The compound thus describes transmission through the spoken word rather than the written page.

文化的背景

時代: Classical–Modern

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Traditional/Cultural