How to pray in Japanese

Prayer Page


Begin your prayer with an invocation to God so any of the following is suitable for a christian prayer in Japanese if you ever are called upon to bless the food in a Country that is 92% Buddhist. If you are lucky enough to be called upon to bless the food and say grace as some Christian churches call it.

Invocation possibilities

TEN NO O-TO^SAMA

TEN NI MASHIMASU AI SURU KAMISAMA

AI SURU TEN NO CHICHI NARU KAMISAMA

After invoking the presence of the Creator who dwells in TENGOKU mainly and he is very well beloved or ai shite iru or the God whom we love dweller of the heavens

Chichi naru kamisama - God our Father

As I was saying, after you do the Ten no otosama part then you will want to thank God for your many blessings. So some typical stuff you might want to bless could be said like the following.

(_____) ga aru koto ni kansha shite imasu - or your are thankful for having (____) etc.

then after you give thanks then go on to bless people, circumstances, situations, anything that you feel needs to be blessed by God or have something good happen to it then you could do it like this by saying

(____) o shukufuku shite kudasai and say please bless that (____) will happen or please honorifically bless whatever I say in the (____) O Lord. Say for example, ai suru kazoku o shukufuku shite kudasai where some christians take their language to the extreme honorifics and say for suru nasaru, so it would be ai suru kazoku of shukufuku nasatte kudasai which means, please bless the family whom I love.


and for the closing benedicts choose something with Jesus' name in it so you could use any of the following for closing your Christian Japanese Prayer in/

Iesu Kirisuto no minna ni yotte o inori moshiagemasu --- amen---

In the name of Jesus Christ, I humbly pray.

The language one uses to pray in Japanese is a lot like when English sounds like the King James version of the Old and New Testament with thee 's and thou's and ye and for behold, etc. The reverence you bring by your wordage will and can affect your prayer, and altitude of your attitude in my opinion. I hope that everyone that searched for How to pray in Japanese finds my little blog on the subject and hopefully found some use for it and God Bless you all of you! ....

Always remember to speak to God in Honorifics and humble yourself sufficiently. If you are praying in Japanese correctly there will not be too many words that are spoken colloquially. That is not to say that speaking to God however you feel comfortable with is wrong, I am just saying that in Japan, they really exaggerate the difference in the politeness of their speech when they speak with well... A higher power, a Deity like Kamisama. Now remember, in Japan holding the Bible is a sacred event. It's not just another book, it;s the word of TEN NO OTOSAMA - FATHER who dwells in Heaven.


So in Recap here is a full blown prayer in 4 main parts divided as such
1.INVOKE
2.GIVE THANKS
3.BLESS ASK
4.BENEDICT

a-men
remember that amen is pronounced aaaah men like the men in ramen even.

In Japanese we can say the following things in stead
1. Ai suru ten no otosama
2. (___) o kansha shite imasu
3. (___) o shukufuku nasatte* kudasai or try other verbs like mamoru, michibiku, taskeru etc.

bless all of us by saying
- Watakushi tachi o
a. michibiite kudasai - please guide us
b. mamotte kudasai - please protect us
c. tasukette kudasai - please help us



As always do your best
GANBATTE NE!

How to pray in Japanese by
Makurasuki
Brett McCluskey

Comparison of Exalted and Humble Japanese Family words

Family words
This is a Quick Japanese Vocabulary Chart demonstrating humble and exalted forms of family words for those serious in making Japanese their SL2.

Humble –when speaking of ones own, of oneself Exalted

Father chichi O-to^san (^ denotes long o)
Mother hahao O-ka^san (long a)
Older Brother ani O-ni^san (long i)
Younger Brother ototo O-totosan
Older Sister ane O-nesan
Younger Sister imoto imotosan
Parents ryo^shin (long o) Go-ryo^shin (long o)Husband shujin (lit. my lord) Go-shujin
Wife kanai okusama, or okusan

sama versus san - san is less exalted but still polite and most commonly used as with any word in column on the right. San can be exchanged for sama in any case and is dependant on how polite you choose to speak. Don't over do it. A Japanese person will always win a verbal joust to see who can be more humble and exalt another.

Ganbatte ne! Do your best!
Makurasuki Sensei

More on Japanese counting and thinking in Japanese

Part Quatro: More Japanese Counters
continued…

The final Countdown

10 – ju

9 – ku

8 – hachi

7 – shichi, nana

6 -- roku

5 – go

4 – yon

3 – san

2 – ni

1 – ichi

0 –zero, rei, o-maru, maru
-----------------------------------

soku – pair of counter, (socks, tabi socks etc.)

ichi (1*) + soku = issoku, (etc.*). ni-soku, san-zoku, yousoku, go-soku, roku-soku, nana-soku, ha-ssoku, kyu-soku, ju-soku, ju-i-ssoku, ju-ni-soku etc.

ken – larger buildings, houses etc.

i-kken ni-ken san-gen, yon-ken, go-ken, ro-kken, nana-ken, ha-kken (This is also the verb to discover, no relation ,just a homonym**.)

ma – room (1, 2 , 3 bedroom house etc.)

ichi-ma ni-ma, san-ma, yon-ma, go-ma, roku-ma, nana-ma, hachi-ma, kyu-ma, ju-ma, ju-ichi-ma, ju-ni-ma etc

retsu – line (line-up), straight line etc.

ichi-retsu, ni-retsu, san-retsu, yon-retsu, go-retsu, roku-retsu, shichi-retsu, nana-retsu hachi-retsu, kyu-retsu, ju-retsu, ju-ichi-retsu, ju-ni-retsu etc.


As Always, Ganbatte Ne!, Do Your Best!
Makurasuki Sensei,




G.A.B: The Ghetto After-Blast Sounds the same but is not written the same.
The Japanese language contains many homonyms (Words that sound the same yet have different meaning).** I am reminded of the Japanese word kiku. If you look up kiku in a dictionary there you will find at least 3 different ways of writing the sounds that for ”kiku” (“key coo”) yet written in 3 distinct ways. In Japanese since words are represented by symbols (kanji) Kanji is system for writing down words borrowed from the Chinese yet evolving into something Japanesque being formed into almost entirely new system of writng scripts. For example, But a lot of times although the Japanese borrowed a kanji for probably at some point in history was a word that meant basically the same thing but, if you write tegami or two kanji for the word which is in Japanese letter, you write the same two kanji and ask a Chinese person to tell you what it means and they wll say toilet paper. One example I am particularly fond of is that unto itself different meanings for the same utterance of sound. They are written in entirely different ways of course in Kanji Learn all three meanings for kiku by listening to the way it used in natural speech. Depending on context it could be a 1. kiku v. to be effective, 2. kiku n .chrysanthemum, 3. kiku v. to listen.