Dojo names

It's perhaps not surprising to find me element bu in a number of B.A.F. dojo names, for it means in Japanese "military' or 'martial', hence bujutsu - 'martial arts', budo - 'martial ways'.

We have explained in Newsletter no. 27 that kan often means a training hall. Hence budokan: a place where martial ways are practiced. In the B.A.F. we have a dojo in Canterbury called Shinbukan, where shin means 'pure'. There is a dojo in Cardiff called Shobukan, where shobu might be translated as 'martial spirit'. An off-shoot of the Cardiff Shobukan was named Shin Shobukan: yet another shin, meaning 'new' ['newspaper' in Japanese is shinbun, with bun expressing the idea of 'hearing']. Finally, there is a dojo in Slough called Kobukan. Ko means 'king' or 'regal'; and the reason why the dojo adopted this noble sounding name was because it was first located in a place called Farnham Royal.