Japanese in Karate 3 "Dojo"

(3)ללמוד מילים ביפנית שמשתמשים באימון קראטה

What is "dojo"?    

First of all, in Japanese letters it's written "dou jou". You don't need to pronounce "u" but make both "o" sound longer. "do-jo-"

道場  These are the kanji letters for "dojo". First letter 道 (dou) means 'the way' (like my own way, the way of living..) and the second letter 場 (jou) means 'place for something'

Karate is also called "karate-do" 空手道 with 道(dou) at the end which means 'the way of karate'. "Judo" also has 道(dou) and so as "kendo"(Japanese fencing) and "aikido" (weaponless self-defense). And all the martial arts are called "budo" 武道. "Bu" of "budo" means 'samurai warriors' so "budo" literally means the way of Samurai!

Now I suppose you understood that the "dojo" is the place for training "budo".

 You have to take off the shoes when you go into the dojo. Why?

Well, in Japan nobody goes into the house with shoes on to keep the house clean. We have "sitting on the floor" culture so we don't want to sit on the dirty floor. People will get shocked if they see someone going into the house with shoes on in Japan. It's almost a criminal behavior... There is an expression in Japanese "go into a Japanese house with one's shoes on" which means 'dishonor' and "rudeness'.
Dojo is also a sacred place so it is unacceptable that you dishonor the place with your dirty shoes!

The floor of karate dojo in Japan is usually wooden floor. And everyone wipes the floor with a rag like in the picture after every training. It's also an exercise! And it teaches you "Polishing the dojo means polishing oneself" (I never thought that way when I used to do it in Japan though....^^)

I will explain about "shinzen" next time.

Osu