Tuesday 16 August 2011

A-un - Om

I was today talking about 'Injinji' after seeing a note on a website FAQ about a shop... www.injinji.com - a shop selling comfy toe socks..

--“Injinji“ is pronounced (In-gin-ji) and is an African term which describes when a drumming circle reaches a climax, the peak in the performance, when all of the participants are at one with the rhythm, when everyone hits a stride and there is unison among all.-- (from their faq)

When I mentioned this, my cousin said this is aun 阿吽 in Japanese.  It is the building up of the drums in Taiko drumming.

So I have pulled out my Classical Japanese dictionary to look at the origin and meaning of this word... "Transliterated sounds from Sanskrit."  (Strangely Sanskrit in Japanese just happens to be bongo :-) )
Mention of a Niou (仁王) and Komainu (狛犬) - the two gods who sit on either side of the temple gates in the esoteric Mikkyo Buddhism.

阿形 - Agyou - symbolizes overt violence - an open mouth and an outward shout or breath.
吽形 - Ungyou - symbolizes latent strength - a closed mouth and holding one's strength.


Together A and UN symbolize the Life and Death of all beings in the universe. And this is equivalent to the Sanskrit OM - or Aum.

The Upanisads describe Aum as the all-encompassing mystical entity. Today the symbol can be seen everywhere in India...

It is the Alpha and the Omega. Did someone say he was the 'Alpha and the Omega' ... or did they say 'I am the Ah (Α) and the Ohm (Ω)' In mysticism.. the Alpha is the infinite... Omega is the end. And in Amen

Friday 24 June 2011

Classical Japanese Ya- 8 [Yattsu, Yasoji, Yahoyorozu kami]

These words are listed in my Japanese Kogo Jiten 古語辞典 (Classical Japanese Dictionary)

When I was at University, I was looking for patterns in numbers and noticed this... but this is also in the dictionary...
ya- や(8) is the translocation of yo- よ(4)
[Is mu- む(6) is the translocation of mi- み(3) ?  It's not in the dictionary but feasible...]

ya-tsu 八つ= 8
ya-so- 八十= 80 (yaso-ji is also listed but also means 80 yrs old)
ya-ho- 八百= 800
ya-chi- 八千= 8000
ya-yorozu 八万= 80000
ya-ho-yorozu- 八百万= 8 million

this last one is in the dictionary... きわめて数の多いのにいうこと ("refers to a very very large number") also "”神”にかかる枕詞のように用いる" (Also used as a 'pillow word' describing the gods. - A 'pillow word' is a poetical word (Makurakotoba on wikipedia)) - example:
"ya-ho-yorozu chi-yorozu kami no, kami tsudohi tsudohi imashite" "There were billions of gods... the gods were gathering"

It wouldn't be a literal translation - (8 million, 10 million)

ya-so- 八十-(80) appears to be used for 'many' ...

  • yasokuni 八十国 (many countries)
  • yasoshima 八十島 (many islands)
  • yasokami 八十神 (many gods)
  • yasoba 八十場 (many places)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasoshima
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasoba_Station
http://www.flickr.com/photos/houtoku/4246615129/ (Yasoba town)

Interestingly there's a lot about Ya- .. hardly anything about Mu- (6)...

[Under Mi- (3)... mi-so-hito-moji (31 syllables - what do you get if you add up 5-7-5-7-7 tanka? = 31) - so perhaps that answers how you join them up.  Rather than "misoji mari hitotsu"]