Karate Terminology

This book is relevant to any student of Karate who would like a more detailed understanding of the Japanese language, or a more extensive source of Japanese terms as used in Karate.

The first part of the book gives explanations of basic Japanese grammar, covering sentence structure, verb forms, and the use of adjectives. There is also an abbreviated history of the Japanese language, and a description of its writing system.

The second part of the book gives information on the Japanese terms that are used in Karate classes and textbooks. The kanji or kana is given for each term, as well as the romanisation. Where relevant, the etymology of a word or details about how the word is used in other martial arts or languages is also given.

This book may also be relevant to students of Japanese martial arts other than Karate. A number of terms used in Karate are also used in Judo and Jujutsu. This book may even be relevant to students of Korean martial arts, such as Tangsudo and Taekwondo, which are related to Karate and which borrow much of its terminology.