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Khahan
24th July 2002, 15:46
Curious about the term Shinai. What does it mean, or how does it translate. Is it a combination of heart and sword?
I was taught that in Japanese shin is heart (not necessarily the physical organ)

Chuck.Gordon
24th July 2002, 16:03
Shinai is _generally_ translated just as 'bamboo fencing stave' -- but I don't know what the kanji are right off-hand, but the 'shin' in shinai may not be the same 'shin' as in heart. Shin can also mean 'new' or 'modern' as well as 'holy' or 'divine' ...

Hmm. Looking up the kanji quickly, it _looks like_ it says 'bamboo sword' ... the characters can be seen here:

http://www.aikiweb.com/language/weapons_k.html

Scroll down till you see 'shinai'

Remember that translating from Japanese to English can be tricky. Words that sound the same can be written with completely different characters and any particular character might be pronounced differently depending on context, if it's solo or in a compound, etc.

Chuck

Khahan
24th July 2002, 17:17
Thanks Chuck.
That is exactly why I'm asking. I have absolutely no idea how to look at/interpret kanji.
Thanks for the help.

Karl Friday
24th July 2002, 22:15
Originally posted by Khahan
Curious about the term Shinai. What does it mean, or how does it translate. Is it a combination of heart and sword?
I was taught that in Japanese shin is heart (not necessarily the physical organ)

The word "shinai" is usually written today with two kanji meaning "bamboo" + "sword" (hence the alternate--albeit uncommon--reading "chikutou"). But Tominaga Kengo identifies a dozen or so variant orthographies used during the Edo period. All of these, however, appear to have been read "shinai" or "shinae," and were probably derived from the verb "naeru," meaning "to droop." That is, the word "shinai"/"shinae" was probably originally meant to indicate a practice weapon that was droopy--flexible--as opposed to a rigid bokuto.

Enfield
24th July 2002, 22:19
Yes, the kanji are "take" (bamboo) + "katana" (sword) to create the compound one would think would be pronounced "chikutou." The pronunciation comes from the verb shinau (the stem being shinai), which means to flex or bend. Or at least that's what I've been told, and it makes sense.

As for the whole "heart" thing, it's shi-na-i in Japanese, not shi-n-a-i, so it doesn't actually sound like it could contain "shin/kokoro".

Enfield
24th July 2002, 22:24
Leave it to one of my betters to post a reply while I was writing mine.