Questions tagged [religion]

宗教. Language related to religions.

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Attack on Titan episode 2 - What does preacher say?

I am translating 進撃の巨人. Below is a sentence from the transcript of the second episode. Here the link for reference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XT7gHjFO8jft8DAQCVpPfmU3DreCsraJVYC-NPtmv5g/edit ...
Merlin Nestler's user avatar
1 vote
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Best Bible translation for my Japanese grandmother? [closed]

I will also be posting this in the Christianity site but I don’t feel like it fits very well in either category. If you can think of a better stack exchange site please let me know. Some background: ...
Zachary F's user avatar
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Which god does 神様 actually refer to?

I have the impression that if a Japanese uses the term 神様, they refer to an omnipotent deity very similar to the Abrahamic god. According to my (very limited) knowledge of Shinto and Buddhism, there ...
kuy's user avatar
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Etymology of bateren (伴天連 / 破天連)

The archaic Japanese word bateren 伴天連 / 破天連 (referring to a missionary [Jesuit] priest) is derived from the Portuguese padre. The Portuguese word notably does not contain or end in a nasal consonant, ...
ヤコブ's user avatar
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How suitable is "僧侶" for "priest"?

Page 79 of Fluent Forever's "Awesome Word List" for Japanese gives 僧侶 as the Japanese word for "priest", listed just after "教会" for "church". How suitable is it for "priest", if at all? Doing a ...
Andrew Grimm's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
160 views

Difference between 仏教絵画 and 仏画

仏教絵画 and 仏画 each have their own Wikipedia article, which is an almost sure sign that they are different concepts. 仏教絵画: 仏教を題材とした絵画である。寺院の壁画、絹、紙、板に描いた絵画、版画等を含む。 仏画: 広義には、仏教絵画全般を指し、仏伝、本生譚、浄土変相図(...
Nicolas Raoul's user avatar
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Obscure religious expression

菩提心をおこすこと、かならず慮知心をもちいる。 It's something about enlightenment and Buddha thing, but I can't find any English equivalent to 慮知心, not to mention the whole expression. "Enlightenment through empathy"?
Igor's user avatar
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1 answer
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What is the difference between 仏 and 釈迦?

Both 仏 and 釈迦 are defined as "Buddha" in my dictionary. Is there a difference between these words?
coyote's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
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How do you replace 「お悔やみ」 in condolences to a Japanese Christian?

In Yosh's answer to the question What are the ways to express someone's condolences?, this link states that Buddhist terms should not be used in expressing condolences to a Christian in Japanese: ...
seijitsu's user avatar
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Can 法王(ほうおう) mean anyone besides the Pope?

I know this word can refer to the the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic church, but when I tried looking it up on google images, in addition to the Pope, I also saw the Dalai Lama, and some other ...
Sean's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why would the Japanese transliteration from Greek Χριστος be spelled as ハリストス instead of キリストス?

Although it's not as common as キリスト, ハリストス is seen in the name of Japan's Orthodox Church. But why ハリストス if the pronounce of the Greek Χριστος is khristós (with a clear kri sound)? There is キリストス too, ...
Yuuza's user avatar
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3 answers
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Why is Eden written as エデン in Japanese?

I just started watching "Eden of the East" and noticed that the Katakana used for Eden was エデン. I'm wondering why isn't it instead イデン which would be pronounced the same way as in English (which I was ...
user11089's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
677 views

How was Japanese animism referred to before 国家神道 (State Shinto) was created?

Pre-Meiji: What was Japanese animism popularly called before 国家神道 (State Shinto) was created in the early Meiji period (19th century)? Prior to that, was the word 「神道」 a common term among the ...
seijitsu's user avatar
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4 votes
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What's that accordion style book you can get at shrines called?

When visiting shrines or temples, one can get an accordion style book and for a couple hundred yen have a shrine's seal stamped inside. What is this book called?
paullb's user avatar
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3 votes
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Would educated Japanese people without special training be able to understand Buddhist mantras/真言?

A well-educated speaker of Hindi (a modern descendant of Sanskrit) who doesn't have any special training in Buddhist (or Hindu) liturgy would probably be able to more or less understand the following ...
senshin's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
341 views

火の車 Where did it come from

My sensei in class told us about 火の車 that means someone in a difficult financial strait . I was wondering what does it have to do with fire 火 and a car 車?
Ahmed Abdel Moneim Elket's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

How accurately can 使い be translated as "angel"?

On jisho.org, 使い is translated with words such as "errand", and the same holds true on translate.google.com. Neither site is offering "angel" as a suggestion. Yet in Matthew 1:20, the phrase: ・・・...
Panzercrisis's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
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What do you call the small wooden plates that people write wishes in and hang on some stand in a shrine?

What do you call the small pieces of wood(?) where people write wishes on and hang them on some stand close to where you tie folded o-mikuji (おみくじ)? Or are they also called おみくじ? Related question: ...
Jerahmeel's user avatar
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25 votes
2 answers
10k views

Why does 皮肉 mean "irony"?

I gather that 皮肉 can literally mean "skin-meat." I also see that one definition for 皮 is "mask (hiding one's true nature);  seeming." So perhaps 皮肉 can be understood as "hiding the real meat," which ...
yadokari's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
227 views

Buddhist facilities

I am working on Japanese texts describing Buddhist temples in South-East Asia and there is quite a number of words I can't really translate in English. Here is a list with my tentative translations (I ...
7 votes
1 answer
417 views

Can a cathedral be referred to as a 寺?

I was listening to a song Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame in Japanese (the intro, The Bells of Notre Dame or ノートルダムの鐘), and I noticed that they referred to the cathedral as a 「てら」. I thought that was ...
silvermaple's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
5k views

Heaven in Japanese

I have found that there are a number of words in Japanese that correspond to "heaven" in English. By heaven I mean the concept of a paradisiacal afterlife. The two most frequent in my limited and ...
yadokari's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to invoke God/spirits in Japanese

No, this is not about any Buddhist chant or mantra that can be used to call forth Japanese gods or heavenly spirits, but rather about any specialized words or interjections that attract attention of ...
Lukman's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
2k views

What's the difference between the に祈る【いのる】 and を祈る【いのる】 forms?

What's the difference between the に祈る and を祈る forms? Like what's the difference between (1.) and (2.): うまく行くのに祈ってくださいね。 うまく行くのを祈ってくださいね。 EDIT: What's the difference between the ように祈る and のを祈る forms?...
Pacerier's user avatar
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