2024
11
21
2010
04
06
忍 [shinobi]
[Reading]
shinobi
[Meaning]
A ninja or shinobi (忍) was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations. The ninja, using covert methods of waging war, were contrasted with the samurai, who had strict rules about honor and combat
[2回]
2010/04/06 (Tue.) Trackback() Comment(0) cool
2010
04
06
侍 [samurai]
[Reading]
samurai
[Meaning]
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai." According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905-914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the ninth century.
[1回]
2010/04/06 (Tue.) Trackback() Comment(0) cool
2010
04
01