When the martial arts were first introduced to the west, the accepted spelling of the kanji for soft or gentle was Jitsu. Later scholors realized that the phonetic spelling translated a different word all together. The kanji that is pronounced Jitsu actually means Truth or Actual, which I also find appropriate. Ergo, we use the original Romanization which can be translated either way.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Truth / Actual
When the martial arts were first introduced to the west, the accepted spelling of the kanji for soft or gentle was Jitsu. Later scholors realized that the phonetic spelling translated a different word all together. The kanji that is pronounced Jitsu actually means Truth or Actual, which I also find appropriate. Ergo, we use the original Romanization which can be translated either way.
