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I remember in October 1998, when I went to Japan for the first time... I was at the reception for a UNESCO sponsored seminar in Educational Technology... and I remarked to one of our Japanese hosts, "One of my favourite things about Japan is budo..."
And he replied "Oh yes, our grapes are very delicious!"
Stunned, I asked him why he said that. "Budo means grapes" he explained.
"What about martial arts?" I asked..
"Oh you mean, bugei, or bujutsu" he said...
Upon further research, I found out that the standard pronounciation for the kanji 武道 is "bu - do" but that the kanji for grape: 葡萄 is also pronounced "budo".. and since more Japanese eat grapes than practice martial arts, guess which term is more understood?
Japanese is rife with such multiple meanings.. such as hana meaning either
"flower" 華 or "nose" 鼻.
The original characters for Karate were 唐手. meahing "Tang" (a Chinese dynasty) hand. They were later changed to "空手" also pronounced Karate but meaning "empty hand".
07-15-2007 11:53 AM 