Dave's Roman-Japanese Aikido Lexicon

This is a tool for people who want to gain greater insight into the vocabulary of the art of aikido. Its purpose is not to offer authoritative definitions of the many terms we use in the dojo, but rather simply to list, in Japanese and romanized script, the words and word fragments which are the building blocks of that terminology. It has been, of course, necessary for me to include some indication of the meanings, and I've tried to give the most accurate and appropriate translations possible. It is my hope that this lexicon will help my fellow martial artists not only to grasp the deeper nuances in these terms and find semantic connections which have been obscured through the use of the roman alphabet, but in general to appreciate the linguistic heritage of their art.

I invite all comments. Please note that at the present time, the existence of different language versions may be a bit misleading -- only the introductory material is translated, not the word meanings. At some future time I may decide to add word meaning translations as well, and will notify my mailing list. If you'd like to receive an email notice each time the lexicon is updated, please drop me a line.

Finally, I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to the folks who have done foreign language translations for me over the years: Jean-Marc Roch (French), Prof. Mauricio Mixco (Spanish), Cristina Toyohashi Takeuchi (Brazilian Portuguese), Max Seinsch and Almut Branner (German). Thanks also to Chris Green, who provided a translation of sorts :-) The Portuguese and German versions of the new lexicon have yet to be updated to the latest form. If and when they are ready, I'll send an email.

Dave Iannucci
Salt Lake City, Utah
dji88=punchcutter,ML1,net

PDF document English / Dave's Roman-Japanese Aikido Lexicon
PDF document Español / Léxico Aikido romano-japonés de Dave
PDF document Français / Lexique d'Aikido par Dave en caractères romains et japonais

It is not necessary to have a Japanese language-capable computer to view the lexicon, however it is necessary to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or later. This marks a change from earlier versions of the lexicon, which used tiny graphics to render Japanese words. I chose to convert the lexicon to Portable Document Format both because it is easier to maintain, and because the result of printing it is much more beautiful (N.B. Although it comes out fine on a printer, it might look distorted on your screen).

If you don't have an appropriate version of Acrobat Reader, you'll need to download and install it before you can view the lexicon. It is free to download and use, and you'll probably need it again, so now's a good time to get it!

The lexicon first went on-line in October 1996.