The use of Japanese in Jiu Jitsu

The main reason behind still using the Japanese lies in the heritage that Shorinji Kan tries to uphold. The use of Japanese within jiu jitsu gives us a more tangible link to our eastern heritage. Its also a bit more exciting when someone asks you what a technique is called and you get to give them a mysterious sounding Japanese name. If you're lucky it even translates to something that sounds exciting in English - e.g. 'Yama Arashi' translates to 'mountain storm'.

Sometimes the Japanese is simply better to use. The use of the word Ashi sometimes referes to foot and sometimes to ankle. This is pretty much because in English ashi really constitutes the foot and the ankle and a bit of the shin even. A direct translation for this doesn't really exist. However sometimes it's worse as our pronunciation often leaves something (... or more likely everything) to be desired. For example kata can mean a formal set of movements (e.g. ukemi kata), shoulder (kata garuma), or even a reference to a person (Ano kata wa donata desu ka).

So using Japanese gives jitsuka a bit of pride in undertaking such an ancient art as they are constantly reminded of where it came from and how long it has been developing. But it can also help to give a deeper understanding of what constitutes a particular technique.

As well as using Japanese for the names of techniques, we also use it to refer to things such as the place where we train (dojo), the instructor (sensei), and even the bowing we do (rei). In these particular instances as well as being quite succinct it also forms part of the ceremony involved in training in jiu jitsu. These 'ceremonies' have specific purposes. The rei-ing on and off at the beginning and end of a session is a greeting and an agreement to teach / train between instructor and students. The bowing to one another before and after a technique lets partners know when it is safe to begin practice and when they have stopped. The Japanese simply helps to keep the spirit and clarity of these things in the jitsuka's mind. None more so perhaps than the use of the word yamae. This means stop and is usually the first Japanese word a jitsuka learns. This word is very important as within the dojo it carries much more word than the word 'stop'. Stop can sometimes be considered a request. All jitsuka are taught the weight carried by yamae - its a command and it tends to stand out against the usual English bantering that might take place during a normal training session.

Finally it's quite fun learning little bits and pieces of Japanese as you progress through your jitsu career. It keeps your mind ticking over as you struggle to remember the names of the throws you are doing during the longer sessions, and in a fight it certainly helps to have an alert mind - so perhaps its good preparation too.