I haven't bought a copy of the GKR Shimbun for about three years but decided to buy the latest edition to read the kata (形 or 型, かた, ka-ta) bunkai (分解, ぶんかい, bu-n-ka-i), or kata analysis, article. Flicking through the pages I came across an article on Advanced Terminology (page 41) with a pronunciation guide and was reminded of one of the reasons I stopped buying the Shimbun. I assume that my emails to the Shimbun on that particular subject have been filed in the same round filing cabinet in GKR HQ as my email regarding the incorrect kanji on the GKR website.

A quick glance over the pronunciation guide reveals a large number of inconsistencies in pronunciation of vowels. The vowel "a" is pronounced as both "uh" and "ah" in hara (腹, はら, ha-ra), as "ar" and "a" in kintama (金玉, きんたま, ki-n-ta-ma), as "ah" both times in mata but as "ar" and "ah" in senaka (背中, せなか, se-na-ka). In kubi (首, くび, ku-bi) the "u" is pronounced "uh" yet in kuchi (口, くち, ku-chi) it is pronounced "oo". The "i" is pronounced as "e" in kubi and "ee" in kuchi.

It is disappointing that an otherwise high quality production such as the Shimbun can't get something so basic correct.

Listen to the correct pronunciation of the 5 Japanese vowels, a-i-u-e-o, here. The consonants are pronounced just as they are in English with the exception of "r" which is a cross between an English "R" and an "L", ra (ら), ri (り), ru (る), re (れ), ro (ろ). The only syllabic consonant is "n" (ん) so all other consonants will be followed by a vowel or a repeat of the same consonant in the case of a double consonant, for example the "k" in "tekken" (鉄拳, てっけん, te-k-ke-n). This means that you can break the syllables of a romanised Japanese word up by the consonants. So rather than senaka being sen-ark-ah as it is shown in the Shimbun it is se-na-ka. The syllabic "n" is pronounced "m" when it precedes a "b", as in "shinbun", an "m" or a "p" as in "enpi" (猿臂, えんぴ, e-n-pi) and "senpai" (先輩, せんぱい, se-n-pa-i) and this is often reflected in the romanisation.

Speaking of the incorrect kanji on the GKR website, if you recall from that earlier blog entry the difference between the correct kanji, 流, and the incorrect kanji, 琉, is the kanjis' radicals. The incorrect kanji has the radical "tama" which means gem or jewel. The second kanji in "kintama", which is given as meaning groin in the Shimbun article, is "tama" (玉, たま, ta-ma) from which the radical tama is derived. The first kanji "kin" (金, きん, ki-n) means "gold" but is also a metaphor for "most valuable". So a literal translation of the kanji in kintama is "gold and jewels" or more generically "precious/most valuable objects" however in that sense the kanji are read as "kingyoku" (きんぎょく, ki-n-gyo-ku). When read as "kintama" the translation is what in English is often called "the family jewels". In his book, Goju Ryu Karate Do Kyohan, Gogen Yamaguchi uses the term "kinteki" (金的, きんてき, ki-n-te-ki) for the groin target area. Kinteki is said to have originated as the name of the bulls eye, the most valuable target, in Japanese archery, kyūdō. Sometimes this is shortened to just "kin". In Japan a groin guard is called a "kinteki sapootaa" (金的サポーター) or a "kin kappu" (金カップ). Both kintama and kinteki are colloquialisms for the male groin region or at least parts there of.

Strictly speaking a "shimbun" (新聞, しんぶん, shi-n-bu-n) is a newspaper like The Advertiser, The Australian or the Financial Review. Japan has five national newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Sankei Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun. The GKR Shimbun is more of a magazine or periodical, called a "zasshi" (雑誌, ざっし, za-s-shi) in Japanese.