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Thursday, 10 December 2015

Christmas comes early at WTKO Shogai karate dojo

We were frilled when we had a recent inquiry from the members of WTKO Shogai. They wanted to commission a special gift for their Sensei, Simon Bligh. The outline draft from the club was for a  木製 の 銘板,   mokusei no meiban  which translates to wooden plaque.
We were asked to try and replicate the clubs moto " Karate for everyone and for all your life" and also to incorporate the name of the club.
A fair bit of correspondence went back and forth with Jenny the club secretary at all stages of the design and translation.

Typically in Japan a motto or saying may be represented as a four character ideogram called a Yojijukugo 四字熟語 these can be either idiomatic or non-idiomatic e.g. the kanji could directly represent the meaning of the saying or bear no relationship at all.
So a direct translation word for word would be pretty meaningless, and although there are over 20,000 Yojijukugo, I don't think any will be a direct translation for Shogai's motto.
Accuracy of translation and more important meaning is paramount, so we usually ask a client to either provide or confirm the translation before proceeding. The issue Jenny had was that this was to be a special gift and the surprise element was important.
The WTKO group has been a regular returning customer, so we arranged for external authentication on the clubs behalf.
The Kanji 皆 = minna meaning everyone and  生 = shogai meaning lifetime were selected, so the final text reads - "Shogai karate dojo - karate for everyone - karate for lifetime" the WTKO GB Hanko was also added to the mokusei no meiban as Simon Sensei holds a key role in the organisation.
It was a great honour to attend WTKO Shogai for the presentation and to witness the club express their thanks to their instructor.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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