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japanese martial art

Navigating the Maze That Is the Japanese Language

Those giant mazes, made of hedges or carved from cornfields and designed so that you have to wind your way through, are a simple stroll compared to the maze presented when working your way through the Japanese language.

The word empi presents a good example. Many Black Belt readers will be familiar with it because it was Gichin Funakoshi's name for a karate kata originally — and, in Okinawan dojo, still — called wanshu.

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