The Most Valued Characteristic?

**DCPan** · 20th April 2005, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by ben

I think perseverance produces behaviour that others might see as courageous. I think it also engenders what I'd call functional humility (i.e. some people can be as arrogant as hell in conversation, but can actually behave in a very conscientious and sincerely ego-less manner when they are involved in something they're passionate about. These people are not humble per se, but when it comes down to it, they are capable of checking their egos).

WOW, my head hurts...why didn't I see that before!

Feeling humbled....this is something particularly worth remembering in an e-forum.

FWIW.

**GoldenShinai** · 20th April 2005, 06:40 AM

It depends on how you mean.......during a math, obvioisly skill and knowledge is most important....but if you mean by what you have accoplished as a kendoka thats a different story. Say you die, and you are looking back on your life as a kendoka........your not gonna say, "well i had skills!" you are going to think of the spiritual growth and how your life was changed by your experiences as a kendoka.....so it really pretends.

**Charlie** · 21st April 2005, 12:08 AM

Very true, GS.

Just by the way, Merriam Webster's defines character as we are using it as "moral excellence and firmness." And as Arthur and Jbyrd have shown us: just what the heck does that mean?

I've thought, as Arthur said, that character meant someone who puts their ideals into action, and this doesn't necessarily mean their ideals are universally interpreted as moral. Even an evil person - that is, evil by my standards - can have character. He sees his evil as correct behavior, correct ideals, and lives up to it.

I've always thought that when the kendo constitution says it is for the development of character that character here meant an ambiguous concept, and what was meant was that kendo should develop the individual to be assertive in his or her individuality (yet also a contributor to society, as the charter, I believe, says).

Anybody know the original Japanese word used in the charter and it it had mutliple meanings in English?

**ben** · 21st April 2005, 09:31 PM

Interestingly Charlie I don't read the Concept of Kendo that way at all. To be "assertive" of one's "individuality" is a very Western concept IMHO. Not necessarily a bad one, but certainly not the one that was in mind when the Kendo no Rinen was drafted.

Be that as it may, the Japanese phrase is "ningen keisei" which (to my gaijin way of thinking) can be broken down literally to mean "human shape becoming". I find that the phrase "human spirit" rolls of the tongue for me better than "human character". To the Japanese, "character" is a more universal, not individual, set of qualities. Character for me in English tends to be person-specific. Strangely, I baulk at the term "character-building" in English (memories of sadistic Scout masters :P). Human spirit is vaguer, more universal, but still aspirational: "a triumph of the human spirit" is a phrase often used to sell movies/books about people overcoming cruel fate. So "to develop the human spirit" might not be the official translation, but it is one that I feel better describes kendo to non-kendoka.

You really need a bi-cultural scholar to have a go at this one from a Japanese point of view, and have sufficient English to convey all its nuances. Maybe I'll post this on the UMKC forum...

b

**Charlie** · 22nd April 2005, 12:12 AM

UMKC?

Excellent comment, Ben, and very much what I was looking for. Human shape becoming - actualization? Achieving one's full, or fuller, humanity? And I think you're right in stressing that for the Japanese a person is realized as a human and an individual but also focused on his place in society as part of a team.