Young Samurai 06 - The Ring of Fire (35 page)

The winner was:

Rozina Bashir

For her suggestion of
Akuma
, which means ‘devil’ or ‘demon’ in Japanese, and perfectly complemented the evil nature of my villain.

With so many excellent names entered by Young Samurai fans, the following were also chosen for the book:

Black Moon
(
Kuro Tsuki
) submitted by Miranda Chong – I loved the concept of the black or new moon as a nickname for the bandit leader and the time for him to strike.

Hayato
submitted by Rachel Andrews and by Sharuk Rahman – meaning ‘falcon person’, which reflected this character’s skill with the bow.

Yuudai
submitted by Andrew Dent – meaning ‘great or large hero’. For obvious reasons, this name was ideal for this towering character.

Neko
submitted by Maria Hoffman – meaning ‘cat’. Although the actual suggestion was Bakeneko, meaning ‘black cat’, I was enchanted by the idea of comparing this character to a cat.

Toge
submitted by Shray Bhandary – meaning ‘thorn’. As Shray wrote in his entry, he’s got to be a thorn in people’s side.

Nakamura
submitted by Carl Petzer – this is the name of a real bandit peasant from the sixteenth century who is rumoured to have killed the famous general Akechi Mitsuhide.

Sayomi
submitted by Sharuk Rahman – meaning ‘born in the night’ – was a fantastic suggestion for an evil female bandit and created a character I hadn’t thought of.

Arigatō gozaimasu
for your suggestions!

Look out for more competitions and prizes on the Young Samurai Facebook page and
www.youngsamurai.com

JAPANESE GLOSSARY

Bushido

Bushido
, meaning the ‘Way of the Warrior’, is a Japanese code of conduct similar to the concept of chivalry. Samurai warriors were meant to adhere to the seven moral principles in their martial arts training and in their day-to-day lives.

		Virtue 1: Gi – Rectitude Gi is the ability to make the right decision with moral confidence and to be fair and equal towards all people no matter what colour, race, gender or age.
		Virtue 2: Yu – Courage Yu is the ability to handle any situation with valour and confidence.
		Virtue 3: Jin – Benevolence Jin is a combination of compassion and generosity. This virtue works together with Gi and discourages samurai from using their skills arrogantly or for domination.
		Virtue 4: Rei – Respect Rei is a matter of courtesy and proper behaviour towards others. This virtue means to have respect for all.
		Virtue 5: Makoto – Honesty Makoto is about being honest to oneself as much as to others. It means acting in ways that are morally right and always doing things to the best of your ability.
		Virtue 6: Meiyo – Honour Meiyo is sought with a positive attitude in mind, but will only follow with correct behaviour. Success is an honourable goal to strive for.
		Virtue 7: Chungi – Loyalty Chungi is the foundation of all the virtues; without dedication and loyalty to the task at hand and to one another, one cannot hope to achieve the desired outcome.

A Short Guide to Pronouncing Japanese Words

Vowels are pronounced in the following way:
‘a’ as the ‘a’ in ‘at’
‘e’ as the ‘e’ in ‘bet’
‘i’ as the ‘i’ in ‘police’
‘o’ as the ‘o’ in ‘dot’
‘u’ as the ‘u’ in ‘put’
‘ai’ as in ‘eye’
‘ii’ as in ‘week’
‘
ō
’ as in ‘go’
‘
ū
’ as in ‘blue’

Consonants are pronounced in the same way as English:
‘g’ is hard as in ‘get’
‘j’ is soft as in ‘jelly’
‘ch’ as in ‘church’
‘z’ as in ‘zoo’
‘ts’ as in ‘itself’

Each syllable is pronounced separately:
A-ki-ko
Ya-ma-to
Ma-sa-mo-to
Ka-zu-ki