The concepts of senpai 先輩 (senior) and kohai 後輩 (junior) are well known in Japanese culture and represent a social relationship.
Kohai en senpai side-by-side in “The Rising Sun”
To better understand this concept both actors (Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery) portray this ‘social structure relationship’ in their characters in the movie The Rising Sun.
Both concepts share the last character 輩 which translates as companion or peer. The first character in senpai (先) means before. The first character in kohai (後) means later.
The first character in (先) in senpai is also the first character of the word sensei 先生 (teacher). The three terms could be (roughly) translated as:
- Kohai 後輩, peer who came after
- Senpai 先輩, peer who came before
- Sensei 先生, person who went before
The role of senpai and kohai can differ in different schools or dojo. Sometimes the role can be very formal; other times the role of senpai or kohai are only subtle. In this article we briefly address this concept as it is used in Japan and how this concept is used in our dojo, Kochōkai.
In Japanese junior and high school students one class or academic year under you are kohai. Students that are one class above you are senpai. Senior students are sometimes referred to with this honorific: Yamada-senpai (instead of Yamada-san).
This relationship stays intact despite the careers of these people in the rest of their lives. Perhaps the kohai will be a professor and his senpai his assistant.
In dojo outside of Japan (the Western World) the mistake or misunderstanding is sometimes made that the student with the most skill and knowledge is the senpai. This is not the case since seniority and skill are not interchangeable (both ways).
In budo, the role of senpai (senior) is very important they are meant to be examples for the junior students and can help the teacher with social interaction in the dojo. Senpai tend to be more accessible then the sensei for mundane issues. This difference in relationship is also apparent in the translations we used earlier: “peer who came before” and “person who went before”.
Senpai are also asked by the sensei from time-to-time to help with the class. New students can (when requested by the teacher) receive instruction from their senpai on
to-rei (bowing to the sword) and suburi (practice swings).
However it is very important to make a distinction between senpai and sensei. Teaching, explaining and correcting techniques providing background information on the style or techniques is a task solely reserved for the sensei.
At Kochōkai a senior student without request from the teacher, can help another student if a he or she can’t figure out the next movement and stopping the kata (specific technique) and therefore that students practice altogether. Only if the teacher is not available and only enough explanation as is required on the subject a student may be un-knowledgeable with. When the teacher becomes available further explanation can be requested on the technique.
When the teacher is not present (such as free practice sessions) or not available and the students cannot remember a kata (and therefore not train) or the technique without instruction, then this technique is to be skipped and preceded with the next technique in the curriculum.
At Kochōkai the relationship between senpai and kohai is not strongly represented. One reason for this is that (beside the informal environment in the dojo) many of the students are advanced in other budo forms and in some cases teach in these forms.
Because of this, there is often enough experience and knowledge present to make the need for an “experienced peer” less necessary.
More information:
- Lowry, Dave (2006). In the dojo, a guide to rituals and etiquette of the japanese martial arts.
- Internet-article on “5th kyu shihan” by aikidoka George Kennedy
- Internet-article by Guy Buyens
Disclaimer:
This article is part of a serie of theory classes. The purpose of these articles is to provide background information for the budo students of Kochōkai. Because of the introducing character of these articles, unfortunately there is not enough room to go in to these subjects more deeply.
