Busai references martial age. It is the age of the martial artist without regard to either their age in years or any grade/level/rank. It is used to describe one who has true depth and maturity as a practitioner of the martial arts. This person has complete understanding of their system as to fundamental principles as integrated into their system regardless of that particular system vs. other systems. One who can and does continue the evolution/growth of the system by developing, researching, demonstrating and teaching the system as a whole. It is also a reference as to the "true depth" of any martial art.
武 - Martial Arts
才 - Sai
This confuses me a bit when I translate the two characters separately. I understand the "martial arts" character since if involves reference to martial in martial age yet the second actually represents "sai" which is a kobudo of Okinawa. This makes me question the source of this term. I tried to translate "depth and maturity" to see what I would get:
深 - depth
成熟 - maturity
and both together: 深さと成熟度 - depth and maturity. Just another example of the complexities and difficulties using and translating a hard language with such complex defined characters into English. I even copied the entire meaning provided by the source to see if the second character appeared, not one character matched.
Finally in another translation system the character appeared with the following translations:
才 - abilities; a gift; talent; aptitude; a genius which given the meaning - generally - does now fit. All the words in one way or another do say that one has both depth and maturity by the talent, aptitude of that practitioner to a level of genius which in reality is a gift to achieve. In addition when added to specified other characters, i.e. 才色兼備, you get "to have both wits and beauty." If you study the Japanese ways you will find that the ability to make decisions and their believe in nature and its beauty as a foundation for their buddhist and shinto beliefs it does fit - generally.
Ok, now that I got that worked out, are there any "busai" in karate-do? I can only speak from my particular viewpoint, nope, nadda, none, it ain't happening any time soon - to much work to do, to much to accomplish. ;-)
Caveat: As with all characters from the Asian systems of communications - take it with a grain cause we ain't from there and errors/omissions are definite.
"The Author, it must be remembered, writes from his own standpoint!"
My personal "Interpretive" Lens!
Do You Have A Question?
If you have a question not covered in this blog feel free to send it to me at my email address, i.e. "snow" dot here "covered" dot here "bamboo" AT symbol here "gmail" dot here "com"
"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider..." - Francis Bacon
Warning, Caveat and Note: The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books.
Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.
No comments:
Post a Comment