When you read a superior's email, look over a client's documents, or glance at someone's business card, you cannot use plain 見（み）る — that describes your own neutral looking, and in these moments the thing you are looking at belongs to someone you honor. The humble (謙譲語I, kenjōgo) verb is 拝見（はいけん）する. It is the exact counterpart of the honorific ご覧になる: they look with ご覧になる; you look with 拝見する. And its first character, 拝 ("to bow, to worship"), opens the door to a whole productive family of humble verbs.
拝見する = humble 見る
拝見する means "I look at / see / read" your superior's thing, with your own act of perceiving lowered. The object is almost always something the honored person owns, wrote, made, or handed you.
お手紙を拝見しました。ご丁寧にありがとうございます。
o-tegami o haiken shimashita. go-teinei ni arigatō gozaimasu
I've read your letter. Thank you for your kind words.
いただいたメールを拝見いたしました。
itadaita mēru o haiken itashimashita
I've read the email you sent me.
ぜひ先生の作品を拝見したいです。
zehi sensei no sakuhin o haiken shitai desu
I would love to see your work, sensei.
Notice 拝見いたしました in the second example: 拝見する is 謙譲語I and いたす adds 丁重語 on top, a formal stacking that has become entirely standard in business speech (compare お召し上がりください). 拝見しました and 拝見いたしました are both correct; the いたす version is a touch more formal.
Asking permission to look: 拝見してもよろしいですか
A huge slice of 拝見する in real life is the polite request to be allowed to look — most iconically when receiving a business card. You take the card in both hands and say:
頂戴いたします。お名刺を拝見してもよろしいでしょうか。
chōdai itashimasu. o-meishi o haiken shite mo yoroshii deshō ka
Thank you. May I take a look at your card?
こちらの資料、拝見してもよろしいですか。
kochira no shiryō, haiken shite mo yoroshii desu ka
May I take a look at these documents?
The reveal: 拝 is a productive humble prefix
Here is the insight that turns one verb into a small vocabulary. 拝 means "to bow" or "to worship," and Japanese uses it as a humble prefix meaning, roughly, "I bow to receive the honored X." Attach 拝 to a Sino-Japanese verb of perceiving or receiving, and you get a humble verb for your own act of taking in the honored person's thing.
| 拝〜 humble verb | Reading | Plain verb | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 拝見する | haiken suru | 見る | humbly see / look at |
| 拝読する | haidoku suru | 読む | humbly read |
| 拝借する | haishaku suru | 借りる | humbly borrow |
| 拝聴する | haichō suru | 聞く | humbly listen to |
| 拝受する | haiju suru | 受け取る | humbly receive (written) |
ご著書を拝読しました。大変勉強になりました。
go-chosho o haidoku shimashita. taihen benkyō ni narimashita
I've read your book. I learned a great deal from it.
こちらのペンを少し拝借してもよろしいですか。
kochira no pen o sukoshi haishaku shite mo yoroshii desu ka
May I borrow this pen for a moment?
These are not random items to cram — they share one meaning, "humbly receive the honored person's [sight / reading / loan / talk]," so the 拝 prefix makes kenjōgo's core mechanic visible. You are literally bowing to accept access to their possession. 拝読・拝聴・拝受 lean written and quite formal; 拝見 and 拝借 are common in ordinary polite speech.
The very same 拝 opens formal letters. The classic salutation 拝啓（はいけい） — paired with the closing 敬具（けいぐ） — literally means "I bow and speak," framing the entire letter as words offered up humbly to the reader. Recognizing the prefix, you can read the letter's opening bow as one more instance of the same "I bow to the honored you" gesture that powers 拝見 and 拝借.
拝啓 貴社ますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。
haikei, kisha masumasu go-seiei no koto to o-yorokobi mōshiagemasu
Dear Sir/Madam, I am delighted to hear of your company's continued prosperity.
The mirror: 拝見する vs ご覧になる
拝見する is one half of a clean sonkeigo/kenjōgo pair. When the honored other looks, you elevate with ご覧になる; when you look at their thing, you lower with 拝見する. The verb flips with whose eyes are doing the seeing.
| Who looks? | Verb | Axis |
|---|---|---|
| the honored other | ご覧になる | 尊敬語 (up) |
| humble me | 拝見する | 謙譲語I (down) |
先生はもうこの写真をご覧になりましたか。私は先ほど拝見しました。
sensei wa mō kono shashin o goran ni narimashita ka. watashi wa sakihodo haiken shimashita
Have you seen this photo yet, sensei? I saw it a moment ago.
The 拝 family mirrors the honorific side point for point: their reading is お読みになる while your reading is 拝読する; their lending is お貸しになる while your borrowing is 拝借する. The full honorific counterpart lives on ご覧になる, and 拝見する takes its place among the special humble verbs.
Common mistakes
1. Using 拝見する about your own or a peer's things. The object must belong to the honored side. Looking at your own photos is neutral 見る — humbling that looking honors nobody.
❌ 週末に自分の写真を拝見しました。
Wrong — the photos are your own; there is no honored owner to defer to. Use 見ました.
✅ 週末に自分の写真を見ました。
shūmatsu ni jibun no shashin o mimashita
I looked at my own photos over the weekend.
2. Applying 拝見する to a superior's seeing. 拝見する lowers the looker. If the superior is the one looking, you must elevate them with ご覧になる instead.
❌ 社長はもう資料を拝見しましたか。
Wrong — this humbles the president's looking. Their seeing is elevated: ご覧になりましたか.
✅ 社長はもう資料をご覧になりましたか。
shachō wa mō shiryō o goran ni narimashita ka
Has the president already looked at the documents?
3. Making 拝見する passive as a would-be honorific. Unlike plain verbs, the special humble does not take 〜れる to become respectful; that only compounds the confusion.
❌ 部長がメールを拝見されました。
Wrong — 拝見 is inherently humble; 〜れる cannot lift it to honor the manager. Use ご覧になりました.
✅ 部長がメールをご覧になりました。
buchō ga mēru o goran ni narimashita
The manager read the email.
4. Reaching for ×お見する. Learners who know the お〜する humble frame build ×お見する for "I see." But 見る has the special humble 拝見する, so the manufactured form is wrong.
❌ お客様の資料をお見しました。
Wrong — 見る has a special humble; ×お見する does not exist. Use 拝見しました.
✅ お客様の資料を拝見しました。
o-kyakusama no shiryō o haiken shimashita
I've looked over the customer's documents.
Key takeaways
- 拝見する is the 謙譲語I humble of 見る — for looking at the honored other's thing (お手紙を拝見しました).
- The object must belong to the honored side; your own or a peer's things take plain 見る.
- 拝 is a productive humble prefix ("bow to receive"): 拝見 see, 拝読 read, 拝借 borrow, 拝聴 listen — all "humbly receive the honored X."
- It mirrors the honorific ご覧になる: their looking goes up, your looking goes down — a clean sonkeigo/kenjōgo pair.
- 拝見いたしました stacks いたす on top and is standard formal usage; never make ×お見する or ×拝見される.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- ご覧になる: Honorific See / LookN3 — ご覧になる is the honorific of 見る — built from the fixed honorific noun ご覧 plus になる — and its request form ご覧ください is the polished 'please have a look' you meet on signs, in emails, and across the service counter.
- Special Kenjougo VerbsN3 — The suppletive humble verbs — 参る・伺う, 申す・申し上げる, いたす, 拝見する, いただく, おる, 存じる and the rest — that override お〜する for Japanese's highest-frequency verbs, sorted by the 謙譲語I / 丁重語 split that tells you whether each one needs an honored target.
- 謙譲語 Overview: Lowering Yourself to Raise ThemN3 — How humble language lowers your own action to elevate, by contrast, the out-group person it touches — the two routes (special humble verbs and the productive お〜する), and the modern split between 謙譲語I and 丁重語 that decides whether a form needs an honored target at all.