tenka

Tenka (天下) is a Japanese noun meaning "the world" or "the realm," with connotations of sovereignty and political order within a country. It is derived from the kanji characters 天 (ten, heaven) and 下 (ka, below), collectively conveying the idea of all under heaven—i.e., the entire nation or political domain. In Japanese usage, tenka often refers to the realm as a whole, the locus of governance, or the capacity to rule.

In historical contexts, tenka is closely tied to concepts of legitimacy, authority, and unification. A well-known phrase is tenka fūbu (天下布武), attributed to Oda Nobunaga in the 16th century, which is commonly translated as “unify the realm by military force.” The term thus appears in discussions of state-building, governance, and power, especially in the Sengoku and Edo periods.

Scholarly and literary writings sometimes employ tenka to analyze sovereignty, imperial authority, or military dominance. The term is often contrasted with the Chinese equivalent tianxia (天下), which carries a similar meaning of a political order under heaven, reflecting cross-cultural influences between Japan and East Asia.

In modern Japanese, tenka remains a largely historical or literary term. It appears in historical analyses, poetry, and sometimes in popular culture as a stylistic reference to themes of rule and central authority. While not common in everyday speech, tenka persists as a concise way to denote the broad concept of national sovereignty and the political world.