Japanese words for my practice

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[peter martin-browning]

Hello everyone

Inspired by aikido, I have decided to name my psychotherapy and holistic healing practice with a Japanese word. My favoured types of word would be such as "healing" or "harmony." There is a risk, however. On a machine-translation site, I was given a translation of the word "helper." The translation was a word that I found out elsewhere also means "prostitute." I know nothing of Japanese language, but in many languages a word has a context-specific meaning, so simple word-for-word translations can be misleading.
Are there any Japanese speakers or scholars here who could help me? Perhaps also you could make your own suggestions for words that would suit this purpose.



At your service


Peter Martin-Browning

[John Boswell]

You can double check things with other ways, but I think Kingfisher is an honorable and through company. Perhaps these inscriptions from their website will be helpful to you? give you ideas?

http://www.kingfisherwoodworks.com/phinsc.html

Good luck.

[j0nharris]

I would start with the words for
Ow :uch:
What the $%!... :confused:
Whooaaa, cool :drool:
Dude, is your finger supposed to bend that way? :eek:


I'm still working on some of those myself!

[diesel]

ittai ittai!!! <in a high pitch, excited tone>
nani kore??? / nani sore?? <start in a low tone and raise as you reach the end>
rehhhhh kakuii! <the rehhh is very excited followed by an abrupt kakuii..>
sumimasen.. sore wa abunai desu yo! <excuse me, that is dangerous you know!>

all romanized of course.. start the debates. :)

[nekobaka]

well, so far no one has given you any thing that you should use (they know it too), so how about this,
iyashi no ma
iyashi means the heal, soothe, make you feel better
ma means room or place
so I guess you could translate it as "a place of healing".

by the way kingfisher looks like a good site, but before you chose one and make a sign or something, you might want to run it by a japanese speaker again. there weren't many but a few words are very average boring words that aren't philosophical at all.

[odudog]

You can use any word you want, but, you need to be careful of the kanji if you are going to use kanji. Japanese is just like English in the fact that many words are pronounced the same but are spelled differently. This is how a lot of people get confused in translating the meaning of Aikido. Ai = love but also Ai = mix, join, fuse,etc... It all depends on which kanji you use for the meaning of Ai.

[peter martin-browning]

Thank you Mike. In fact I am going to use the romanised version since it has to be intelligible to my English-speaking clients.
Ani, - thank you. I like this suggestion, especially since it has a poetic sound that English people might appreciate.

At your service

Peter

[diesel]

how about...

iyashi no ma wa doko desu ka??

more colloquial

iyashi no ma wa doko ka

Where is the healing room?

I think that sounds a little odd.. :)

Maybe my favorite

mechya ittai desu yo.. byoin ni ikimashoo..

As you know, this really f****n hurts.. shall we go to the hospital.

my .02..

[saltlakeaiki]

how about this,
iyashi no ma
iyashi means the heal, soothe, make you feel better
I should point out (although I shouldn't admit to knowing too much of these kinds of things :)) that 'iyashi' has a usage which is overtly sexual. When used in this way it means something like "sexual healing" in the sense of the Marvin Gaye(?) song. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use it -- just be aware. I don't have any better ideas right now, but if I can come up with something "safer", I'll post it.

Dave

[Josh Reyer]

I should point out (although I shouldn't admit to knowing too much of these kinds of things :)) that 'iyashi' has a usage which is overtly sexual. When used in this way it means something like "sexual healing" in the sense of the Marvin Gaye(?) song. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use it -- just be aware. I don't have any better ideas right now, but if I can come up with something "safer", I'll post it.

Dave

Um, are you referring to 癒し系 iyashi-kei idols? Because otherwise I don't know of an overt meaning of iyashi that is remotely sexual. And even in that case it's not exactly sexual.

For a psychotherapy/holistic practice, iyashi would be exactly the word to use. A Google search for 癒し and いやし turn up many, many pages of just that kind of practice, aroma therapists, estheticians, and similar sites.

I, myself, wonder at the need to name something a name that neither the proprietor nor the clientele truly understands.

[saltlakeaiki]

Um, are you referring to 癒し系 iyashi-kei idols? Because otherwise I don't know of an overt meaning of iyashi that is remotely sexual. And even in that case it's not exactly sexual.No, I've never heard this term. But if it refers to pretty, teen- and 20-something girls who are singers and actresses, then it's the usage I refer to :) You're right though, in this kind of case it's not really overt, but it's there in the subtext.
For a psychotherapy/holistic practice, iyashi would be exactly the word to use. A Google search for 癒し and いやし turn up many, many pages of just that kind of practice, aroma therapists, estheticians, and similar sites.I did the same search (on the kanji version), and am actually quite surprised that there are as few hits returned for the sexual meaning as there are (since we all know that most of the Web is driven by the sex industry :)) I only found a few on the first 5 or so pages. This would suggest that the slang meaning is not as pervasive as I thought it might be, and that it's "safe" :) for Peter to use in the name of his business.

Dave

[Josh Reyer]

No, I've never heard this term. But if it refers to pretty, teen- and 20-something girls who are singers and actresses, then it's the usage I refer to :) You're right though, in this kind of case it's not really overt, but it's there in the subtext.


I don't think so. Iyashi-kei (roughly, "iyasu type") simply refers to a particular type of feminine ideal. You have for example, the sexy-types, the cute-types, the older sister types, the girl next door types. In the case of Iyashi-kei, it just means the kind of girl who's calm, quiet, and affectionate. Say you come home from a hard day of work/school, and she makes you feel at home, listens to your problems, and makes you forget your stress and troubles just by her radiating calm (and maybe a hug). They tend to be popular with women as well as men.

The Wikipedia on 癒し says this, for example:

近年は若者を中心として、癒しの特徴、特性を持つ人物や物体などを「癒し系」と表現することがある。特に芸能界においては、顔、容姿が端麗で美形、主に「ほんわか」「やん わり」とした視聴者を和ませる雰囲気がある女優やグラビアモデル、タレントをさす言葉として定着しつつある。

"Mostly among young people in recent years, Iyashi-kei is used to express people or things that possess the characteristics and qualities of iyashi (healing). Especially in the celebrity world, it's becoming established as a term referring to actresses, models, and entertainers whose face and figure are graceful and beautiful, mainly with a honwaka (peaceful, pleasant), yanwari (gentle, mild) air that soothes and comforts the audience."

[saltlakeaiki]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing this out.

[nekobaka]

are you confusing 癒し and いやらしい, which is something sexual or perverted? iyashi has been the rage for years now. I will agree that they do refer to cute young girls as iyashi kei, but the also refer to big fat boyish comedians as iyashi kei.

[saltlakeaiki]

are you confusing 癒し and いやらしい, which is something sexual or perverted?Nope :D

[Derukugi]

[[I should point out (although I shouldn't admit to knowing too much of these kinds of things ) that 'iyashi' has a usage which is overtly sexual.]]]

Hmm... David... have you been visiting too many de-ai sites by any chance? Yes, "iyashi" is often used in a sexual way, but by no means does it have to. Just as little "beaver" or "missionary" in English always have to be sex words, no matter what Goggle tells you.
It all depends on context. I see no problem with "iyashi", as long as people know it is meant in a medical way.

[James Smithe]

This may be off subject but could you talk about your type of therapy in more detail?