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Shorinji Kempo - Kenpo in Chinese / Japanese...
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Shorinji Kempo / Kenpo
少林寺拳法 is a specific type of martial art in Japan that claims origins in the Kung Fu practiced in the original Shaolin Monastery of China.
The first three characters mean “Shaolin Monastery,” and you might notice the Japanese is pronounced in a very similar way. The reason is, many words were “borrowed” from the original Chinese when Japan did not have a written language and simply absorbed Chinese characters into their language around the 5th century. When a Japanese word did not exist, the Chinese pronunciation was often absorbed as well as the written form.
The last two characters mean “fist law” or “method of the fist.” It has long been argued as to whether the Japanese for these characters should be Romanized as “kempo” or “kenpo.” The official method should be “kenpou” but it's common to drop the “u” that comes after the “o.”
I imagine if you are looking for this title, you already know what it means, so the above is simply extra information that a student of Shorinji Kempo might want to know.
I've noticed you are searching for "Shorinji Kempo - Kenpo". There is a lot of confusion about whether it should be 少林 or 小林. The original Chinese Shaolin is 少林 but somehow in Japanese, it became 小林 (both versions are pronounced "Shorin" in Japanese). It is hard to say which one is correct. If you want a different first character from the titles shown on this page, please let me know by putting a note in the "Special Instructions" tab when you customize your calligraphy artwork.
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Shorinji Kempo Kenpo | 少林寺拳法 | shourinji kenpou shourinjikenpou shorinji kenpo | shào lín sì quán fǎ shao4 lin2 si4 quan2 fa3 shao lin si quan fa shaolinsiquanfa | shao lin ssu ch`üan fa shaolinssuchüanfa shao lin ssu chüan fa |
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