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Jason Lester
Jason Lester's picture
Bin-an / Pin-an / Hei-an

Hi all,

in Gichin Funakoshi's To-Te Jitsu, the Pinan/Heian Kata are called or referred to as Binan, from the Shaolin style.

I take it this was the orginal chinese name for the 5 Kata before the use of Pinan and Heian, as we know the meaning behind Pinan is (safe from harm) and Heian (peacefull mind) although some disagree with the meanings.

However, what does Binan mean?

Kind regards,

Jason

Tau
Tau's picture

Is is not just a more gutteral pronunciation, like koshi and goshi, both meaning hip (or ball-shaped)

ky0han
ky0han's picture

Hi Jason,

there are several transcription systems. For chinese there is the now standard system of pinyin and the old system wade giles. For japanese there is the Hepburn System the most used. So when you take the kanji and transcribe it in the different systems you come up with.

Bing An (pinyin) Ping An (Wade Giles) Peng On (cantonese) Heian (Hepburn)

Heian doesn't mean "peaceful mind" there is no mind in any of those two Kanji. It just means peace. Pinan, Bing An, Ping An means peaceful or safe. Safe from Harm is ok though.

I hope that helps.

Regards Holger