Most complete Martial arts dictionary?

[Mujician]

Hi - Is there a good martial arts (Japanese) dictionary/glossary of terms anywhere? I have seen a few but they all seem fairly short, and don't tend to include all the same things. Thanks

 

[pgsmith]

You'll find a few sites that have some generic Japanese martial arts terms roughly defined, but you'll not find what you're looking for. The reason is that Japanese is a context driven language, so exact definitions are impossible to place on any Japanese word when it is out of context.

 

[Andrew Green]

Hi - Is there a good martial arts (Japanese) dictionary/glossary of terms anywhere? I have seen a few but they all seem fairly short, and don't tend to include all the same things. Thanks

At best you are taking words out of their context, if you want to learn Japanese, learn Japanese.

Just like English, it's not a simple thing to just take a word and move it to another language though. We have multiple words that largely mean the same thing, we have slang terms, we have dialects, we have words that get used in really odd ways without some cultural context to it.

Let's take football. Even the name is strange, it's mostly a hand ball sort of game. But start thinking about the other terms used, how do you think that would work in another language? Would it make sense at all to use the words "offence" and "defence" instead of words that mean that in the language you actually spoke?

If you want to learn Japanese, do it proper. Get a beginner language course and start their.

Otherwise, just like English, things are going to be contextual. Even within different branches of karate you will see different terms and terms used differently.

 

[Chris Parker]

Not sure the OP is after a Japanese dictionary itself, Andrew... more just something that can help him grasp the terminology used in his dojo. And, for the record, conversational Japanese isn't really the same thing... there are certain terms that you'll encounter in a martial arts dojo that you won't in regular Japanese. And, to that end, Paul is right... he won't find what he's looking for. Each different art, and in some cases, each different dojo, will have it's own heigo (martial language)... if you walk into my dojo, and say "Osu!!", you'll get a funny look, maybe a slight smile, and be told not to say that silly little phrase here... head into an Aikidojo, or a Karate-dojo, and it might be heard some thirty or forty times in an hour from each student... and each might have a different interpretation of what it means, and how it should be used.

You might attend one dojo (Aikido) where the two training partners are called Uke and Nage... then, in a Judojo, they're known as Uke and Tori... in Tenjin Shin'yo Ryu, you'll find the terms Ukemi and Torimi... in some classical arts, you'll hear references to Aite and Ware... or Teki... or Uchidachi and Shidachi... Kiri-komi and Uke-komi... and this is just an inexhaustive list of terms for the partners in practice, without getting into everything else...

That said, if I was to recommend a book, it'd be David Hall's Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts... it's not really going to give much in the way of dojo terminology (although there is some there), but is a great reference for many arts and concepts of Japanese martial systems. Other than that, it'd be best to search for a glossary specific to the art the OP is after... which will be different to the lists of other dojo and arts...

 

[pgsmith]

That said, if I was to recommend a book, it'd be David Hall's Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts... it's not really going to give much in the way of dojo terminology (although there is some there), but is a great reference for many arts and concepts of Japanese martial systems.

I'll second this recommendation. David Hall did a good job compiling information on a great many Japanese martial arts. It's an interesting reference that students of the Japanese martial arts should have and read through.