About the book title

The last Friday I asked Sōke if it was ok to publish this book, he said Gambatte before the translation was done. Then he looked through the book quickly and encouraged me to do it. Then it was painting time and I gave him a paper and asked for Yūdansha the book title. He wanted more paper and wrote the same phonetic sound but with different kanji. So I got three versions, like a 三心 Sanshin.

On Sunday (today) I got help finding the right kanji by Noguchi Sensei, then I did some internet research (no thanks to G00g1e that think Yūdansha means a “stepped-out person” (I guess they mean a LSD tripped out person 🙄), don’t tell them!).

有段者 YŪDANSHA is the normal kanji used which means a person that has a Dan rank (black belt).

If we break up the three kanji we get

有 YŪ (possess, have, exist, happen, occur, approx).

段 DAN (grade, steps, stairs)

者 SHA (someone, person).

勇段者 YŪDANSHA It could mean a black belt hero, a courageous or brave black belt

勇 YŪ (courage, cheer up, be in high spirits, bravery, heroism​)

雅段者 YŪDANSHA it could mean an elegant, graceful or refined black belt.

雅 MIYABI (refinement; elegance; grace​)

All this gave me a great idea to incorporate this in the book. I’m not gonna go further here as the book is unwritten and I might change my mind. But I feel that the book is gonna be something different than all the others and something I will be proud of.