Help I need Kanji
- Thread starter The Kai
- Start date
mhouse
Yellow Belt
Try About.com.
I used that to look up the Chinese characters for a few things.
Here is the link for "Martial Arts"
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blcc_martialarts.htm
I used that to look up the Chinese characters for a few things.
Here is the link for "Martial Arts"
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blcc_martialarts.htm
Tripitaka of AA
Yellow Belt
KenpoTess said:
Sorry Tess, but "Kenpo" does not derive from Chinese (any more than any other Japanese word - - which, of course, is most of them!)
Briefly, Kanji are Chinese characters and have a Chinese pronunciation and one or more Japanese sounds associated with them. Japanese is written using Kanji. There are additional "alphabets", called Hiragana and Katakana, which are used for Foreign words, and for adding the verb endings, etc.
Karate-do is Japanese for "The way of the empty hand" (or, earlier "the way of the Chinese hand").
Kempo, or Kenpo, is Japanese for "Fist method".
So you can see why Japanese speakers are still scratching their heads about the odd coupling of the two words. "Kempo Karate" is a phrase that no Japanese person would use. Like saying "boxing boxing" or "Baseball Baseball" But then, Japanese people mess up Engish words and phrases all the time too... so what the hell
Oh, and don't worry about the difference between KeNpo and KeMpo... it is just a different way to take the Japanese sound and write it down. In the Japanese language there is no difference. The different strands of Kempo Karate, or Kenpo Karate are just the names that people chose for their art.
To summerize what David wrote,
The Chinese write out two charecters for "fist" and "law" and pronounce it "Chuan Fa". The Japanese take the same two charecters and pronounce it "Kenpo."
And yes, it is kind of silly from a Japanese viewpoint to call something Kenpo karate, since they are two seperate arts in Japan. In America, even today most people do not know "kenpo" by itself and so I can see why adding the karate is needed to let people know that it is a martial art with a lot of striking.
The Chinese write out two charecters for "fist" and "law" and pronounce it "Chuan Fa". The Japanese take the same two charecters and pronounce it "Kenpo."
And yes, it is kind of silly from a Japanese viewpoint to call something Kenpo karate, since they are two seperate arts in Japan. In America, even today most people do not know "kenpo" by itself and so I can see why adding the karate is needed to let people know that it is a martial art with a lot of striking.
I just meant -Kenpo 'the Martial Art' *not the word*, originated from the Chinese.. :shrug:
