opera kanta

swastika 2

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 3:30:43 AM

Nazi, shorinjikempo, Swastika, 少林寺拳法, manji

Wikipedia says swastika comes from Sanskrit of ancient India. It is called "manji" in japan. It was a symbol of good fortune both in Eastern and Western world. It isn't monopoly of Nazi. There are several kind of swastika crests in Japan and both of right-swastika and left-swastika can be seen.

A:Nazi's swastika
B:right-manji
C:left-manji standing
D:left-manji bold
F:right-manji bold
G:right-manji bold standing

take a look at the page below. You can see other kind of Japanese swastika crests.
http://www.asgy.co.jp/cgi-bin/kmnlist.pl?manji

picture lower: Manji is used as a symbol on a map for Budhism temple.

Once Shorinji-Kempo used manji as their symbol.(C of above) Recently they changed it to double-O because that was similar to Nazi's.

nengajou 2009 part 2Haregi

Comments

Annenudelsieb # Tuesday, January 6, 2009 2:59:47 PM

The link shows a stunning variety of manji, some are really beautiful! Sadly those stupid Nazis misused that symbol...

TomSiskan # Friday, February 6, 2009 11:11:24 PM

I've got a katana from about the time of WW2. There are four manji om the tsuba.

opera kanta # Saturday, February 7, 2009 5:11:42 AM

WOW!?! Does it have blade edge? If so, it's dangerous. One who holds a katana with him tends to have a urge to cut anything around him..... In Japan, we need a license to hold a katana. None carry around katana in Japan. Don't believe "KILL BILL"!!

TomSiskan # Saturday, February 7, 2009 2:10:48 PM

Yes, it does. It HAS been sharp around that time, but it isn't anymore. I don't think we if we need a license to have a sword at home (especially one that isn't sharp anymore), but we surely can't bring it outside.

I have about five Swedish swords too (not sharp). One of them has been used for parades like this: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vJyyOylgVW0/SM6ZLsjNEzI/AAAAAAAABrw/XQoK-YiHiLw/P8060021.JPG and looks like this: http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p248/EmblemDefender/rapier.jpg
And one has been used for training fencing.

I don't have a photo of the katana right now, but if you are interested I could get one.