Aikido is often referred to as the defensive martial art. While aikido was born in Japan, it has become a somewhat famous form of defensive tactics taught to soldiers and Marines, as well as some law enforcement officers in the west.
Looking at the characters, the first means "union" or "harmony".
The second character means "universal energy" or "spirit".
The third means "way" or "method".
Please note that while these Japanese Kanji characters can be pronounced in Chinese, this word is not well-known in China and is not considered part of the Chinese lexicon.
Note: It is somewhat accepted that this is the origin of Hapkido in Korea. And other than a modern simplification to the middle Kanji of this 3-Kanji word, it is written the same in Korean Hanja.
Hapkido is a mostly-defensive martial art of Korea. It has some connection to Aikido of Japan. In fact, they are written with the same characters in both languages. However, it should be noted that the Korean Hanja characters shown here are the traditional Chinese form - but in modern Japan, the middle character was slightly simplified. Note: You can consider this to be the older Japanese written form of Aikido. Titles on older books and signs about Aikido use this form.
The connection between Japanese Aikido and Korean Hapkido is a bit muddled in history. This is probably due to the relationship between the two countries - especially during WWII when many Koreans became virtual slaves for the Japanese (many Koreans are still bitter about that, so many things were disassociated from having any Japanese origin).
Looking at the characters, the first means "union" or "harmony."
The second character means "universal energy" or "spirit".
The third means "way" or "method".
One way to translate this into English is "Harmonizing Energy Method". This makes since, as Hapkido has more to do with redirecting energy, rather that fighting with strength against strength.
More notes:
1. Sometimes Hapkido is Romanized as "hap ki do", "hapki-do" "hab gi do" or "hapgido".
2. Korean Hanja characters are actually Chinese characters that usually hold the same meaning in both languages. There was a time when these characters were the standard and only written form of Korean. The development of modern Korean Hangul characters is a somewhat recent event in the greater scope of history. There was a time when Chinese characters were the written form of many languages in places known in modern times as North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and a significant portion of Malaysia. Even today, more people in the world can read Chinese characters than can read English.
3. While these Korean Hanja characters can be pronounced in Chinese, this word is not well-known in China and is not considered part of the Chinese lexicon.
Kodokan Aikido
kou dou kan ai ki dou
Characters shown above are read vertically, starting from the right
This is Kodokan Aikido.
Be sure this is the right Kodokan for your school, as there are two different titles that romanize as Kodokan in Japanese.
Shotokan Aikido (Japanese)
sōng tāo guǎn hé qì dào shou tou kan ai ki dou 송도관합기도
Characters shown above are read vertically, starting from the right
This is the title for Shotokan Aikido in Japanese.
Note: Chinese and Korean pronunciations of these characters are included above, however, this title would only be understood in Chinese or Korean by someone who practices or is familiar with Shotokan Aikido. Please consider this title to be "Japanese only".
All of our calligraphy is completely done by hand in the ancient way.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to our art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Therefore, allow a few weeks for delivery from the time you place your order. Rush options are available!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "medium size" 4-character wall scroll. As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall. (We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days. Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.
The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese
Title
Characters
Simplified Traditional
Japanese Romaji (Romanized Japanese)
Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Aikido (Japanese)
合気道 (Modern Japanese) 合氣道 (Old Japanese/Chinese)
ai ki dou aikidou ai ki do
hé qì dào he qi dao ho ch`i tao
he2 qi4 dao4 heqidao hochitao ho chi tao
Hapkido
合气道 合氣道
ai ki do aikido
hé qì dào he qi dao ho ch`i tao
he2 qi4 dao4 heqidao hochitao ho chi tao
Kodokan Aikido
光道馆合气道 光道館合気道 / 光道館合氣道
kou dou kan ai ki dou koudoukanaikidou ko do kan ai ki do
shou tou kan ai ki dou shoutoukanaikidou sho to kan ai ki do
sōng tāo guǎn hé qì dào song tao guan he qi dao sung t`ao kuan ho ch`i tao
song1 tao1 guan3 he2 qi4 dao4 songtaoguanheqidao sungtaokuanhochitao sung tao kuan ho chi tao
If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why I spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "aikido" listings above.
If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich.
Some people may refer to this entry as Kanji, Characters, in Mandarin Chinese, Characters, in Chinese Writing, in Japanese Writing, in Asian Writing, Ideograms, Chinese symbols, Hieroglyphics, Glyphs, in Chinese Letters, Hanzi, in Japanese Kanji, Pictograms, in the Chinese Written-Language, or in the Japanese Written-Language.
