I study a martial art called Geido Kenpo Ninpo Ryu. Having said this, what should a Honbu for this martial art be called?
I see for Judo the Honbu is called the Kodokan. Would there be a similar term for Geido Kenpo Ninpo Ryu?
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Are you looking for an explanation of why the "honbu" of judo is called "kodokan" in order to imitate the naming process for your martial art?– Earthliŋ ♦Jun 10, 2014 at 21:35
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2The Kodokan for judo is not a generic term meaning "headquarters", but is instead the name of a place. Since this particular Geido Kenpo Ninpo Ryu appears to be a style of martial art founded by an American in the 1990s (c.f. malineage.com/styles/Geido-Kenpo-Ninpo-Ryu, apparently submitted by you so I trust you're familiar with the history), I think it's pretty unlikely that this school would have a headquarters building in Japan with a specific name. Since this is American, "headquarters" should suffice. If Japanese is preferred, honbu would work.– Eiríkr ÚtlendiJun 10, 2014 at 22:42
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1@Earthliŋ: I wasn't sure how much weight to put on that profile, or on the linked website, given that the linked site purports the founder to be one Travis Maxson, who, on that site at least, is made to appear as a different person from Long Jie.– Eiríkr ÚtlendiJun 11, 2014 at 15:40
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1Long Jie is a screen name of Travis Maxson, Iemoto of the Geido Kenpo Ninpo Ryu multi-system.– user6684Jun 28, 2014 at 21:03
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2講道館 is read kōdō, not 'koda'.– jogloranJun 20, 2015 at 3:45
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1 Answer
While you can always use 本部【ほんぶ】 for headquarters, another way to say 本部 (of a martial art or a religion) is 総本山【そうほんざん】.
This refers to a name of a place (town), a name of a building (temple, shrine, etc), or a name of a group (institute), depending on the context.
天台宗の総本山は延暦寺です。 Sohonzan of Tendai-shu is Enryaku-ji temple.
柔道の総本山は講道館です。 （BTW, 講道館 is the name of a institute as well as the name of a building）
Edit: It was pointed out that 総本山 is too grandiose for rather small and non-Buddhist groups like Geido-Kenpo-Ninpo-Ryu. Although 総本山 is a grandiose word and has roots in Buddhism, I think it can safely be used metaphorically for non-Buddhist groups, especially those related to Asian traditions. (Perlの総本山は perl.org です, etc.) Removing "総" and just saying "本山" sounds less grandiose (General HQ vs. HQ, I think). But if your group is a really small one, don't use (総)本山 (or maybe 本部, either)
