ai, love; specifically a superior’s love of a dependent.
arigato, thank you; ‘this difficult thing.’
buraku, a hamlet of some fifteen houses; a district in a village.
bushido, ‘the way of the samurai.’ A term popularized during this century to designate traditional Japanese ideals of conduct. Doctor Inazo Nitobe in Bushido, The Soul of Japan, itemizes as Bushido: rectitude or justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control.
chu, fealty to the Emperor.
daimyo, a feudal lord.
donen, age-mates.
eta, a pariah class in pre-Meiji times.
geisha, a courtesan especially trained and given high prestige.
gi, righteousness.
gimu, a category of Japanese obligations.
giri, a category of Japanese obligations.
go, a unit of measure of capacity; less than one cup.
haji, shame.
haraki’ri or seppuku, suicide according to the samurai code. Seppuku is the more elegant term.
hysteri, nervousness and instability. Generally used of women.
inkyo, the state of formal retirement from active life.
Issei, an American of Japanese ancestry born in Japan. Vide Nisei.
isshin, to restore, to dip back into the past. A slogan of the Meiji Restoration.
jen (Chinese), good human relations, benevolence.
jicho’, self-respect; circumspection. ‘To double jicho with jicho,’ to be superlatively circumspect.
jin (written with the same character as Chinese jen), obligation which is outside the obligatory code. But vide ‘knowing jin,’.
jingi (variant of jin), an obligation outside the obligatory code.
jiri’ki, ‘self-help,’ spiritual training dependent solely on one’s own disciplined human powers. Vide tariki.