The
first kanji 神 "shin" means 'God' and the second 前 "zen"
means 'in front of'. "Shinzen" is the place where there is a spirit
of god.
God
for Japanese people is from Shinto religion. Most of Japanese people belong to
Shinto (and also Buddhism) but they usually call themselves 'non-religious'.
Shinto
is very different from other religions. The Shinto's belief is that (simply
put) there are gods in everything in the nature(like in the sun, the woods,
fire, etc..) and we cannot live without the blessings of those gods. So Japanese
people pray to the gods when they appreciate the benefits in life or when they
beg for better situations. But other than that, they are not obliged to do
anything. Samurai warriors used to pray
to the gods for safety and triumph.
The
gods represented by Shinzen in the dojo are 2 gods of martial arts. 鹿島大明神(Kashima daimyojin) 香取大明神(Katori daimyojin)
You
might see these 2 names (written vertically) hanging on the wall in
"Shinzen"
These gods/spirits will protect you from danger through the training and help you improve your skills.
These gods/spirits will protect you from danger through the training and help you improve your skills.
"Rei"
is 'a bow'. Japanese people bow when
they appreciate and when they apologize and also when they ask someone a
favour. Bowing is the courtesy in Japanese society. "Rei" is also for showing respect. You do "rei"
before and after the fight to the opponent to show respect even if he is your enemy.
You
do "Shinzen ni rei!" at
the beginning of the training.
"ni" in the middle means 'to' but the order of words is
opposite from English. So here it means 'Bow to Shinzen'. It actually means
that you bow to show your courtesy to the gods and pray for safety in the
training and for improvement of your karate skills. Bowing to the gods also means
the respect to parents and to ancestors.
<Japanese expressions>
Thank you = Arigato gozaimas/ Arigato gozaimashita(past tense)
I am sorry = Sumimasen
Please do me a favour = Onegaishimas
I will explain "shoumen" and "seiza" next time.
Thank you = Arigato gozaimas/ Arigato gozaimashita(past tense)
I am sorry = Sumimasen
Please do me a favour = Onegaishimas
I will explain "shoumen" and "seiza" next time.
Osu
