Chihayafuru: an update on the “teki” debate

What do I see you as?

Since I asked one of my Japanese teachers in Tokyo about the term late last year, I’ve been meaning to follow up on this post about what Taichi meant when he referred to Arata as a “teki.” I’ve just been putting it off because I had a whole lot of other things I wanted to write about more—I’ve even fallen really far behind on my reviews of the manga. Well, hopefully, this post will galvanise me to get back into it, though I make no guarantees whatsoever…

Let me begin with a comment by a professional translator in reference to translating Japanese video games:

Teki (敵) is enemy, but it can occasionally refer to an opponent, which is usually aite (相手, opponent or other player) in Japanese.

Daniel Morales—who writes a pretty interesting column about the Japanese language, by the way—doesn’t specify how you decide which translation you should go for. However, my Japanese teacher, who has a doctorate in Japanese studies, gave me the following answer:

“Teki” is used to mean ‘opponent’ in certain traditional Japanese contests. On the other hand, “aite” tends to be used more in games and contests that have come from the West.

I haven’t really had time to check this, other than to confirm that the traditional contests in question include Japanese chess (Shōgi) and Go. If I go by their descriptions only, actual physical contests such as Kendō and Jūdō tend to use “aite,” which I presume is due to the fact that they are martial arts that have traditionally been used to attack and defend oneself from hostile individuals.

My searches on google also suggest that some teams in sports like basketball and soccer might think about opposing teams as “teki” when they’re trying to develop and practice strategies against them. I’m not the biggest fan of sports anime (Guardian Enzo is, however, so that may be why he’s adamant that the translator should have chosen ‘rival’ instead of ‘enemy’), but if anyone proficient in Japanese could check this as they keep watching, reading and playing ACG media, I’d be glad to hear what you find.

Well, I never imagined that I would write about this gentleman in a post about Chihayafuru, but let me assure you that it’s warranted…

As an aside, I was also quite pleased to see the following when I was in D.C. recently. The official guide to the Lincoln monument states that Lincoln never referred to the Confederates as “enemies”; rather, they were always “our adversaries” or “those people over there.” Remembering a debate I once had about the translation of “teki,” I’m glad to know that Abraham Lincoln also thought that calling someone an ‘adversary’ didn’t mean the same thing as calling them an ‘enemy’. In fact, he’s not the only one.

Hence, I stand by my core argument about that scene: whatever Taichi meant by “teki,” “enemy” is most certainly not the right translation. Having gone over all of this once again, I’d personally argue that in chapter 105 / S2 episode 20, “an adversary” is the best way to describe how Taichi viewed Arata. But that’s not a word that most teenagers would use, so we’re left with “opponent” and “rival.” Unless I go for a mouthful such as “someone I have to defeat,” that is. And to be frank, although “opponent” is the correct translation, I don’t think it quite conveys the respect that Taichi felt for Arata’s karuta skills, the respect for his own skills that he wanted Arata to feel, and how much he wants to defeat him. So, though it’s not ideal because the connotation is more positive than I feel it should be, I think I’ll have to settle on “rival” in the end. The tone that Miyano Mamoru used for that line is going to have to convey the ambivalent feelings that Taichi had for Arata at that point.