major_motoko Posted August 21, 2003 Posted August 21, 2003 Hey there, does anyone know anything about the Kanji characters for Bushido? The kanji looks like this: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/graphics/bushidou.jpg Does anyone know what the single characters themselves mean, and how when put together make the words "way of the warrior" Thanks! motoko 2nd Kyu Brown Belt, Wado Ryu Karate-do"Daniel-san best karate still inside!" Mr Myagi
major_motoko Posted August 21, 2003 Author Posted August 21, 2003 ok, so I have found out that the two symbols on the left are "Bu" = Martial or War and "Shi" which together makes "Bushi" = A warrior (samurai) The third symbol is "Do" = way. I guess that's pretty obvious then Does anyone who reads kanji know what the middle symbol "shi" can mean on it's own? I know shi can mean "four" or "death" depending on how it is written but how does that fit into this context? motoko 2nd Kyu Brown Belt, Wado Ryu Karate-do"Daniel-san best karate still inside!" Mr Myagi
Girlfight Posted August 22, 2003 Posted August 22, 2003 Ok, I will try and explain but it`s a bit complicated. Sometimes an individual kanji can have different meanings and different readings depending on the context. For example the `kara` from karate means empty (as in empty hand). It can also be read `sora` which means sky and also `kuu` which means air. Furthermore many kanji are written differently but read the same way (sort of like piece and peace in English, they sound the same but they are written differently and have different meanings). So even though the kanji for `4` and `death` are written differently they are both read as `shi`. In fact there are over 50 kanji which are read as `shi` including the `shi` in sushi. There is no real connection between these kanji, even though my kanji teacher claims there may have been a connection in ancient Chinese but these connections have long been lost. The shi in bushido means `military man` and is used in many words such as officer, warrior, soldier etc. but is also sometimes used as a suffix for some professions eg. in `bengoshi` which means lawyer. [/img]
major_motoko Posted August 22, 2003 Author Posted August 22, 2003 Thanks girlfight! I guess that's also where we get "Hanshi" from too? chani 2nd Kyu Brown Belt, Wado Ryu Karate-do"Daniel-san best karate still inside!" Mr Myagi
Girlfight Posted August 25, 2003 Posted August 25, 2003 Sorry not sure about that one but glad I could be of help.
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