Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

just got a interesting note from Kimball Martin who has been kind enough to do some translation work on Tomiki's book for me:

I was just looking on the website and you have "Ni Ju San Hon Kata." I think it should be "Ni Ju San Bon" if what you wanted to do was replace the 17 of Ju Nana Hon with 23. (The "hon" is a counter, and are sound changes after certain numbers "ichi hon --> ippon, san hon --> san bon, ju hon --> ju(p)pon." This is why it's "Ju Pon" for the Big 10.)

Ooooooooh! That explains why I could never find kanji for "pon" with o waza ju pon! 😄

Yep, usually the counter suffix is romanized as part of the number, like Juppon or Junanahon. The "hon" counter is 本, used for long, cylindrical objects, sticks, trains, pencils, and points or bounds in sports events (ippon). Hon means book (originally scroll, hence cylinder) or source/origin.

A good list is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word.

So how would you write O Waza Ju Pon?

大技十本 ??