Usually, you pronounce 武士 "Bushi". But you pronounce the title of this book
"mononou". I think people used to call 武士 "mononou" many years ago.
This book has the kana(Japanese phonetic syllabary characters) next to Chinese
characters to show the pronunciation.
The title of this book is pronounced, Mononou no michi.
Anyway, the theme of this book is to tell what the philosophy of samurai is.
道 means "the road". In Japanese, you sometimes see this Chinese character,
"道" when you start lessons. For example, there are various lessons such as
華道(Kadou)、茶道(Sadou)、柔道(Judo)、剣道(Kendo)... Ａｌｌ lessons have the Chinese character 道 at the end of the word. (Each lesson means, the road of flower arrangement, the road of
tea ceremony, Judo, Kendo...)
道 is prononced "michi" or "Do(u)".
As you see above, Japanese people may think learning something is to go on the road.
In my image, when you walk on the road, you would not be able to see the goal.
And the road must be steep. Japanese people who are engaged in such lessons for
a long time, must have the idea like that.
By the way, when I started to read this book, I found this book is so difficult...^^;
I don't know if I can read all. I bought this book to introduce what the philosophy of
Samurai is on this blog. Foreign people know the word "samurai". And they would know
the image of samurai. (Some people may believe samurai are still alive in Japan
in this modern times...^^; Actually, you can see samurai at amusement park only.)
I forgot to attach this photo yesterday. I took this photo at Mashiko.
This house is so old stylish Japanese house. The roof is called "Kayabukiyane"
We don't see this type of house nowadays. It is rare case.
Some day, when I find this type of house, I want to take the photos.
4 comments:
Hm, every time I hear the word "samurai" I think of Miyamoto Musashi. He must have been an extraordinary person. I read first about him in a novel by Eiji Yoshigawa and went into a reasearch frenzy - just had to read everything I could about him :)
That book was one of the reasons I started learning Japanese - I simply want to read books in their original language, because something is always lost in translation.
The people who like Japanese history
must be fun of Miyamoto Musashi. But unfortunately, I really don't know him.
I have just heard of his name. Because, we don't learn about him at school...^^;
Did you read Eiji Yoshikawa's book in Japanese???
I want to learn about samurai more to write on this blog. I would introduce various samurai.
Oh, no - my Japanese is in a very beginning stage - I just started studying it.
I read the book in its English translation.
I see. But you are great. You can read English translation. It was so long story, wasn't it?
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