I've been confused about how ken gets used in certain words. One meaning of it is 剣 which means "sword". That one's used in 剣道 kendou which is, of course, the study of how to fight with a katana.

But 拳 is also pronounced ken and it means "fist". Alone, that isn't a word in Japanese but it's used in a lot of other things. For instance, it's used in 拳法 kenpou which is the name for a style of Chinese empty-hand fighting.

Reason I ran into this is that a lot of the weird techniques in DBZ include ken in their names, and they didn't involve swords. (The only sword in the series belongs to Yajirobe.)

Based on usage, I had come to the conclusion that ken also meant "technique", but if there's any such reading of it, I sure haven't found it. (jutsu certainly means "technique" but that's different.)

I'm still not clear on what "ken" is involved in the technique called tayoken, which results in a brilliant light that permits the user to escape. It's something Tenshinhan developed, but Goku and Krillin both know it, too. In DBZ we see Krillin use it three times and Goku once. The English translation was "Solar Flare", but since it doesn't include either a fist or a sword, I'm not clear on what it was supposed to be.

Anyway, in Ranma 1/2, I presume that neko ken is probably the "fist" reading. Does that seem right?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 11:57 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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