Japanese Terms Glossary

From TCWiki

Since lots of obscure Japanese terminology arises in tC posts, this is the place to give a brief definition of them. If someone asks you what it means, you probably should put it here.

Japanese Terms Glossary

Shikigami

Spirit servants of an onmyouji, comparably to familiars. Some are summoned from ofuda.

Ofuda

Paper talisman. In reality, are used as protection and good luck charms. In fiction, ofuda are used for rituals, spell casting and incantations by miko, sorcerers and onmyouji.

Onmyouji

A practitioner of onmyodo. Specialists of magic, divination and spiritual matters.

Omamori

A small, personal charm-amulet. Usually for protection or some other personal benefit, such as good luck, grades, health and love. Comparable to an amulet version of ofuda.

Youkai

Spirits, ghosts or demons.

Shinigami

Literally "death god". As shinigami may take many forms in various traditions and fictions, in tC if just refers to the spiritual beings who work for Death.

Kitsune

A fox-spirit, prone to deviousness and pranks.

Mikage

Literally "honorable shadow", abducted for tC to mean the semi-mortal servants of Death and underlings of the shinigami.

Bishounen

Technically, one who has a refined, slender sort of almost feminine beauty but simply applies to any attractive male.

Nekomata Youkai

Literarlly, nekomata means 'forked cat'. It refers to the folklore bakeneko, a cat demon that has its tail forked.

Onmyodo

An esoteric practice, adopting ideas of Japanese cosmology, Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, natural science and occultism. It concerns fortune-telling (by a variety of means), medicine and magic, both dominated by the ideas of yin and yang and traditional elements.

Kami

Objects of worship or awe in the Shinto faith. Encompasses a lot.

Oneesan

"older sister"

Oniisan

"older brother"

Otouto

"younger brother"

Imouto

"younger sister"

Honorifics

-san

Most common honorific, used for anyone outside of family and friends. Equivalent to "Mister" or "Miss". It may also be used with non-persons or titles, such as bookseller-san or toaster-san. '-han' is also sometimes substituted for '-san'.

-kun

informal honorific primarily used towards those in junior status (more often males but sometimes female) by those in senior status. An example would be a teacher referring to students.

-chan

diminutive and informal honorific. It can be used in a variety of fashions but usually indicates a sense of endearment or intimacy.

-sempai/senpai

honorific used to refer to one's senior, whether it be at work or at school. The reverse, senior to junior, is usually just '-kun' instead of the actual '-kohai'.

-sensei

honorific used to address teachers, politicians/authority figures, or anyone who has gained some degree of mastery in a given profession.

-sama

very formal honorific used towards people much higher rank than oneself or, by business people, towards customers. May be cynical, of course, or may be used to show deep admiration.

-dono

archaic honorific meaning 'lord'. It may be used to either show actual fealty or just deep respect.