The Japanese Art of Making Up Japanese Arts

Kiku... Or don't...

I thought this was a joke at first:

Credit: @tokyovice

Turns out it isn’t.

Turns out it’s for real.

Like, what? We can just use any Japanese word now?

I thought Kiku just meant ‘to listen’.

Turns out I was well off. Turns out…

it’s a whole Japanese art!!

Consider this yamabushi mind blown.

Well, bonus points for using the Kanji 聴く:

‘to listen attentively’

as opposed to this one: 聞く,

‘to listen’ (kind of like English ‘watch’ versus ‘see’).

Well done indeed.

But still…

Jake Adelstein already took a good one. Damaru.

And you know what?

I can play that game too:

Tekitō

Tekito is like half-assed, but good enough. Agenai means ‘don’t give’ and Kuso means the proverbial.

Mendokuse

Mendokuse, from Mendokusai, means ‘bothersome’ or ‘troublesome’. Oh, and Sugiru is when something is too much.

Jisho

Jisho is the Japanese term for… dictionary.

I’m sure that Kiku book is full of good insights and whatnot. But the title? Gees… Someone needs a Jisho.

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On that note:

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Daily Yamabushi for The Week

One last one. Jubun means ‘enough’.

Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of November 7 to 13, 2025.

Read Daily Yamabushi at timbunting.com/blog. Most popular articles here.

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