Tasshi

[Gibukai]

Hello,

can anyone help me out with the title "Tasshi" which was the forerunner of "Kyoshi". I would like to learn about the kanji, I was not able to find. Thanks.

Regards,

Henning Wittwer

[Brian Owens]

I see it's been a while since you posted your question, with no replies. These types of questions generally get a better response if you ask them in the Language forum. The Japanese language experts tend to look there more often than other sub-fora.

In the mean time, here are some kanji to consider:

Tatsujin 達人 means "master" or "expert."
Tassuru 達する means "to become expert in..."
and tassei 達成 means "to attain" or "to achieve."

So tatsu 達 is likely to be the first kanji you're looking for.

Since kyoshi is 教師 and shihan is 師範, we can guess that 師 is the second kanji.

That gives us 達師 as a likely candidate, and if we run that compound through BabelFish it does, in fact, return "teacher" as the translation.

So that'd be my guess as to what you're looking for.

Here it is again:

達師

HTH.

[desparoz]

A very very belated response.

Just a note that the term 教師 means teacher, and is used in non-martial settings.

In my experience, when used in budo, the character used for shi is generally 士, meaning samurai (as in bushi).

So Tasshi would actually be 達士

Similarly Renshi would be 連士, Kyoshi would be 経士, and Hanshi would be 範士.

I think these are right, but reserve the right to be wrong!

Cheers

Des

[ichibyoshi]

Tasshi does indeed = 達士 and kyoshi = 教士 not 経 (which means sutra or scripture).
Renshi = 錬士 not 連 which is half of the term renmei 連盟 which means federation. b

[desparoz]

Thanks Ben, you're absolutely right. Too quick with accepting the characters that came up with the hiragana input mode on my computer....

[Gibukai]

Hello,

Thank you for the input. Yes, 達士 are the kanji for 'tasshi'. When I asked that question some years ago, I hoped to verify the kanji used by a certain (non-Japanese) person. There seem to be quite questionable writing variants for Japanese terms floating around in Western martial arts circles…

Regards,

Henning Wittwer

[Meik Skoss]

This is a belated response to the enquiry about "tasshi," but that was a term used by the Dai Nippon Butokukai in the early 20th century, before many of the modern budo organizations adopted the dan-i seido (grading system) which most people know. There were a series of licenses/certifications in a number of (mainly weapons arts). I believe the sequence went: seiren-sho, renshi, tasshi, kyoshi, hanshi. There was a certain perceived parity of ability, i.e., people with Butokukai licenses were generally recognized as being of roughly comparable skill.

During the 1930s, and after WWII, pretty much all the arts adopted the whole "belt" system, which has become more complex, with any number of variations and wildly varying requirements. When eight-year-old children receive "black belts," and an entire rainbow spectrum before that, it seems clear that there is a vast difference between current practice and the way it started out. (sigh...)