Bodies in Japanese Language An Introduction to the Polysemous Character of Corporeality

This article presents an inspection into the vast arena occupied by terms and signs in Japanese language that designate the word ‘body’. The study is centred around etymons and semantic descriptions offered in selected monolingual lexical sources, thereby revealing slight divergencies that surface when confronting these entries in order to underscore the ambiguity and hybridity that characterise corporeality itself. In addition, part of this study is dedicated to Ichikawa Hiroshi’s semantic analysis of the Japanese word mi (body), to Uno Kuniichi’s discourse on the shintai (body) and to insights on corporeality offered by Kan Takayuki. The purpose of illustrating this diversified lexical treasure that surrounds, sustains and recreates bodies is to draw attention to the central position occupied by corporeality itself in Japanese culture, where the body/ bodies emerge as a catalyst of cultural production.


Introduction
This article 1 offers an overview of the kaleidoscopic landscape and broad array of terminologies and written signs defining the word 'body' in Japanese language. The survey focuses in particular on the etymological and semantic explanations provided in selected monolingual dictionaries to display discrepancies among the same vocabularies seen as a reflection of the ambiguity and hybridity that affect corporeality itself, and on the correspondent translations edited in Japanese-English dictionaries. The aim of this article is to highlight the complex lexical system and its multi-layered readings, in which corporeality is embedded, a phenomenon that I interpret as an inverted tip of the iceberg that shows the centrality of corporeality in cultural production.
It should be considered that the words for 'body' given here are only a part of the rich vocabulary. In addition, each word has a sort of own life and its nuances and meanings may change throughout history, from context to context, from author to author, and even from sentence to sentence of a single writer, as I try to demonstrate in my research on texts written by Hijikata Tatsumi, the founder of the avant-garde dance called butō (see, for instance, Centonze 2018a; 2018b; 2020). 2 Thus, the suggestions provided should be considered as a sort of propaedeutic approach to a wider problem that involves critical issues of academic investigation on corporeality and methodology itself.
In order to observe how these terms surrounding the body are ap-plied in a certain context, I give three examples of discourses by theorists who deal with the question of corporeality and present their insights on some Japanese word definitions for 'body'. Part of this study is dedicated to Ichikawa Hiroshi's ([1993] 2007) semantic analysis of the Japanese word mi (body), to Uno Kuniichi's (2000) discourse on the shintai (body) and to insights on corporeality offered by Kan Takayuki (1983). From a linguistic point of view, this study is only an embryonal elaboration that may be further developed in different directions. Many issues that came to the fore when consulting the definitions for 'body' in different dictionaries presented here require a further systematisation. Thus, with this article, rather than providing answers, I would like to raise questions and open up spaces for scholars of diverse areas for reflections upon this linguistic mosaic (and sometimes labyrinth).
This study also requires a further transcultural investigation into Asian realities, in a wider perspective extending the discourse to a transversal study on the terms for 'body' and on corporeality in Asian cultures, historically based on dynamics of embodiment of culture, which stands out as an implicit and intrinsic aspect.
Although my specialisation is not in language studies, the study of texts and primary sources is a fundamental approach, on which my research is based in order to provide a philological investigation on corporeal phenomena. I also consider the high value intrinsic to the oral tradition and transmission, the way artists express their thought, the words they choose when talking about the body.
I hope that it can be useful for performance and dance scholars who are concerned with corporeality and that it may contribute to a further widening of the concept of corporeality.
At the same time, my hope is to implicitly suggest the high potentiality of and importance played by dance or performance studies, seen as a discipline that sheds an interdisciplinary light on questions concerning corporeality, and furnish further frames of understanding cultural practices, such as language, by focusing their rapport with the corporeal phenomenon, due to the fact that dance studies depart from the necessary practice of focusing the attention on the body.

Some Notes on Japanese Language
A brief introduction to notions of Japanese linguistics is also necessary in order to approach this investigation on morphemes concerning the body. The Japanese writing system is a texture of four different scripts, and permits, as Shibatani ([1990] 2005, 92) outlines, a "multiplicity of coding possibilities": kanji (lit. 'Chinese characters'), the two sylla- baries katakana and hiragana, and the Latin script known as rōmaji. Previous to the introduction of the Chinese script started in the 5th century and progressively conveyed through Chinese Classics and Chinese translations of Sanskrit Buddhist works, Japan did not have a writing of its own. Therefore, Japan, alongside with Korea and Vietnam, is considered part of the so-called Sinosphere, i.e. the cultural area influenced by Chinese writing that included China itself (Whitman et al. 2010, 74). Thus, practices of vernacular readings, called kundoku 訓読 in Japanese, of classical Chinese texts, and annotations with reading glosses are considered a "linguistic habitus" in non-Sinitic cultures existing since the premodern age (Whitman et al. 2010, 74).
As Shibatani ([1990] 2005, 120) outlines, the systematic borrowing of Chinese words took place in three waves, which generated a layering of pronunciations and readings of the same Chinese characters according to their cultural origin. Pollack (1986, 3-54) focuses on the transition from orality to literacy in Japan and considers this process as the beginning of a "fracture of meaning". In his seminal study, Pollack (1986, 3-54) discusses how the adoption of a foreign writing system made of signs loaded with powerful semantics, brought to a nearly constant process of manipulation of the script and literate representation throughout Japan's history in order to adapt it to and combine it with the native oral "matter". 3 This process has been accentuated by the structural differences that characterise Chinese and Japanese language: the former is monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected, and the latter is polysyllabic, agglutinating and highly inflected (Pollack 1986, 19).
In regard to the Chinese script introduced into Japan and its adoption, Pollack considers that: [T]hese signs were full of meaning when they arrived in Japan as the medium for Confucian and Buddhist ideas that were entirely new in Japan; they were not simply an alphabet, whose sounds could easily be abstracted from the cultural complex they had once represented. Before these signs could be made to represent sound alone, they had first to be emptied of their alien significance by a mental act that attributed only a sound value to each sign and com-3 Pollack reads this tension between oral and literate representation from the 8th to the 18th century under the register of the wakan 和漢 (Japanese/Chinese) dialectic. For further insights on the 'problems' in the history of Japanese script, as for instance, during the Meiji Period (1868-1912), see Sato Habein 1984 The debate on the fundamental role played by spoken and written language in constructing a national, international and personal identity is an outstanding issue in Japanese modern history (Gottlieb 2005, 1). In his seminal study, Miller (1982) provides a historical discourse on the myth and self-referentiality of nationhood in modern Japanese society, where life and language are inextricably linked. Language is seen as a "way of life" and not as a social convention (Miller 1982, 4-5). 579 pletely ignored its powerful semantic burden. (Pollack 1986, 35) Shibatani ([1990] 2005, 142-53), who also considers myths created around Japanese language outside the country (89-93), underlines the common practice in Japan of borrowing words from other languages, including Ainu and Korean language: In the domain of lexicon, successive waves of loan words resulted in a large number of doublets and sometimes triplets composed of native word, a Sino-Japanese word, and a Western word. […] [T]hese near-synonyms are often associated with different shades of meaning or stylistic values, and the correct use of them is delicate both linguistically and politically. Linguistically, often the meanings of the foreign loan words are altered from the original meanings, and many expressions have been newly created in Japan by combining existing foreign words. (92; italics added) Traditionally, the Japanese lexicon is considered in terms of its etymological strata: the native vocabulary, defined as wago (和語) or yamato kotoba (大和言葉), the loan words of Chinese origin, defined as kango (漢語), and words borrowed from other languages, defined as gairaigo (外来語) (142).
As will be illustrated in the following sections, sometimes it can be a considered a political choice, when choosing one word, or one writing, in respect to the other.

An Etymological and Semantic Comparison of Terms Indicating the Body
The concern in this section is to display, although partially, because of its huge extent and interdisciplinary characteristics, the intricateness and complexity a scholar might encounter, if approaching a general study of terminologies that refer to the word 'body' in Japanese language. What happens when we investigate a context where the word 'body' displays a multiplicity of definitions and an ambiguous variety of usage throughout its etymological history and coinage?
A first glance at the Japanese lexical panorama pertaining to the word 'body' is enough to provoke a reaction in whoever wants to approach the linguistics surrounding corporeality. If we compare the respective entries edited in Japanese monolingual dictionaries, slightly different interplays of semantics, characterised by a subtly interchangeable configuration of synonyms, do appear.
The Hamanishi Masando indicates under the corporeal category taikaku 体格 (physical constitution, physical status, physic, build) the first word group related to the headword 身体/人のからだ (body/the human body). In Japanese, the compound 身体 can be read shintai or karada, and the reading of the headword 身体 is not specified, whereas its semantic description is provided with a wide definition: 'human body' ( 人のからだ hito no karada). A series of terms pertaining to the 'human body' are correlated with this compound, to be precise, 29 + 16 + 20 definitions, i.e. 65 terms in total are listed under this category.
As illustrated above, in KRS it is added that a substitutive word for shintai is happu 髪膚 (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504), and that happu forms a compound with shintai. Happu is a compound word formed by kami 髪 (hair) and hifu 膚 (skin), and, although it is not often indexed in Japanese-English dictionaries, it is listed in The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Nelson 1997;hereafter Nelson), wherein is displayed the English translation "body", "hair and skin".
When combined with shintai, the word shintai happu means "entire human body", "every inch of one's body", as indicated in the online dictionary Weblio. 7 A further synonym for 'body' listed in KRS within the word group 身体/人のからだ is nikutai 肉体 (body). The entry nikutai 肉体 is illustrated by these following paradigms: りっぱな肉体の持ち主。 肉体をさいなむ。 肉体美。 ［労働］ 生身のから だ. (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504) A person who has an admirable nikutai. Torture the nikutai. It is interesting to note that among the synonyms for 'body' cited in KRS only the term nikutai is opposed to the antonyms "spirit" (seishin 精神) and "soul" (reikon 霊魂), alongside a further synonym provided by KRS for 'body', niku 肉, which is considered in its meaning of nikutai in KRS (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504).
In addition, it is important to underline that in reference to the entry nikutai it is also explained that "[the terms] karada [からだ] and shintai [身体] may also indicate the condition of a dressed body, whereas the [term] nikutai has no such usage" (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504).
I dare to say that the definition par excellence, or figuratively established in its semantics for "human body" is 人体 jintai, literally the body (体) of a human being (人). 人体 is classified in KRS as a term from the literary language, i.e. as a bunshōgo 文章語 (word used mainly in writing). Another possible reading of 人体 furnished in Nelson is "nintei", and "nintei" is translated as "personal appearance". The Kenkyūsha's New Japanese English Dictionary (fifth edition, 2003; hereafter Kenkyūsha) indicates for jintai 人体 the following translations: "a [the] human body; the system; flesh". 11 人体 (jintai ) is used, for example, to compound the terms such as jintai kaibōgaku 人体解剖学 (human anatomy), or jintai jikken 人体実験 (experiment on a human body).
Also 人身 jinshin covers the semantic area of 'human body', but it has a much more reflexive nuance, pointing at the personal, individual body, as is evidenced in KRS (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504).
In reference to the body expressed by the word jinshin, it is interesting to underline that the Japanese rendering of Habeas Corpus Act (1679) is Jinshin hogohō 人身保護法.
Also bodī ボディー, a loan word (or gairaigo) from the English language, therefore written in the phonetic syllabary katakana, is listed among the synonyms for 'body' in KRS. As indicated in this dictionary, it is used for example in compounds derived from the English such as bodībiru ボディービル (bodybuilding), or bodīgādo ボディーガ ード (bodyguard), and also for designating the 'body' of a car, a ma-9 As indicated in the Nelson dictionary, the compound 女体 can also be read jotai.
10 As indicated in the Nelson dictionary, botai 母体 can also be read motai.

11
The Kenkyūsha dictionary provides for nintei 人体 the English meanings of "personal appearance; look".
12 Further translations for niku are given below.
13 The Nelson dictionary has both readings: nikukai and nikkai. In the Kenkyūsha dictionary appears only the word nikukai translated as "a lump of meat; the human body".

Katja Centonze
Bodies in Japanese Language. An Introduction to the Polysemous Character of Corporeality 583 chine, a ship etc. (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). 14 The Kenkyūsha dictionary gives the translation "a body" for ボディー.
I would like to add here the current expression naisu bodī ナイス ボデイー (nice-looking body, attractive body) often used in everyday language or in commercials for diet goods, and I dare to categorise it as a typical product of the global consuming society.
In KRS the semantic field of "whole body" (zenshin 全身) is occupied by sign-definitions such as honemi 骨身 (flesh and bones, marrow), gotai 五体 (the five component parts of the body, the whole body; the five styles of calligraphy), zenshin 全身 (the whole body, full-length [portrait]), manshin 満身 (the whole body), the above-mentioned shintai happu 身体髪膚, kamishimo 上下 (the upper and lower parts of the body; samurai garb; old ceremonial garb; the government and the people).
Zentai 全体 (the whole), often used in spoken language for indicating the whole body, is not mentioned in the section 身体/人のから だ in KRS.
For  (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). The KRS dictionary opposes seitai 生体 to the antonym shitai 死体, the dead body. Seitai 生体 is translated in Nelson as "living body", and in the Kenkyūsha dictionary as "a living body; an organism". Here I would like to add that the rendering in Japanese of 'somatology' is seitaigaku 生体学.
In reference to ikimi 生き身 the KRS cites the proverb ikimi wa shi ni mi 生き身は死に身 (all that lives must eventually die) (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). The Kenkyūsha dictionary offers for ikimi 生き身 the translations "flesh and blood; a mortal man".
The Ruigo daijiten 類語大辞典 (The Great Dictionary of Synonyms; hereafter RD), edited by Shibata Takeshi and Yamada Susumu, cites synonyms for 'body' and its word group under the category of karada からだ (Shibata, Yamada 2002, 1486. In reference to the entry 体 (からだ karada) it is explained that 体 (からだ karada) "supports the activity of human beings and animals", and that it is "the entirety (全 体 zentai) covered by the skin, and made of parts such as head, chest and limbs" (1486). At the end of the definition is annotated that the correspondent kanji for karada can also be 軀 or 身体. The same kanji 体 is classified next as the word tai タイ, employed for instance in sports jargon for designating the human body (karada からだ) when it is about to move (1486).
In the Kurashi no kotoba: Shingogen jiten 暮らしのことば 新語源辞 典 (The Words of Life: New Dictionary of Etymology, 2008; hereafter KKSJ), edited by Yamaguchi Yoshinori, the entry for 体 (karada から だ) is compiled by Kubota Atsushi. Here the etymology of 体 (karada からだ) is first introduced as "the whole (zentai 全体) from the head to the tips of the feet. The whole nikutai" (Yamaguchi 2008, 196). It is explained that in ancient times this term was employed in order to designate, in respect to the soul (tamashii 魂), the body (shintai 身体), which hosts/contains the soul, or to address the body (nikutai 肉体) without life.
The kanji 骸 is interchangeable with its further written form 軀 (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). Mukuro is the Japanese reading (kun'yomi) of 骸, therefore designating the native term. The kanji 骸 can also be pronounced in its Chinese-derived reading (on'yomi) gai, not mentioned in KRS, but provided in Nelson and translated as "bone, body".
17 This reading is not contemplated by the Nelson dictionary. In regard to kabane 屍 the Kenkyūsha dictionary indicates a cross reference to shikabane 屍 for its English translation. For shikabane 屍 we find a further cross reference in the Kenkyūsha dictionary, which is shitai 死体. Shitai 死体 is translated in the Kenkyūsha dictionary as "a dead body; a corpse; one's remains; a stiff; a carcass." It is further explained by Kubota (Yamaguchi 2008, 196) that karada is thought to share the same etymon of カラ (幹, 柄), implied in the meanings of kareeda 枯れ枝 (stem, trunk, withered branch), as well as the same etymon of カラ(枯, 涸), which appears in karayama 22 and is linked to expressions used to define something without liquid, something dry, without substance ( jisshitsu 実質). Karada also shares the same etymon of カラ (空) 23 linked to the meaning of 'empty' (karappo からっぽ) (Yamaguchi 2008, 196).
According to this entry in KKSJ, it seems that karada カラダ taken as a generic term has started to be used from the medieval period onwards, and that in the Japanese texts (wabun 和文) of the Heian period (794-1185) it has not been employed, because it is a kanbun kundokugo 漢文訓読 (a word of the kanbun kundoku) 24 (Yamaguchi 2008, 196). Therefore, in the Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji, early 11th century), the hiragana word kara から appears instead of the kanbun kundoku word karada カラダ (Yamaguchi 2008, 196). In addition, Kubota (Yamaguchi 2008, 196) cites the Nippo jisho 日葡 19 In this sentence of the KKSJ dictionary mi is written in katakana (ミ) and then followed by the kanji 身 put in brackets. Here mi is a kundoku, a Japanese semantic reading of a Chinese character. For the origin of the Japanese syllabic system of katakana and its use in premodern practices of reading, writing and glossing 'foreign language texts' see Whitman et al. 2010;Sato Habein 1984, 21-4; 20 It is specified that da ダ is a suffix (setsubigo 接尾語) (Yamaguchi 2008, 196).
Other possible readings of 柄山 are kareyama かれやま or kozan こざん. The Nelson dictionary categorises 柄山 with the following transliteration in rōmaji: ka(re)yama. The English translation offered by Nelson of 柄山 is "a hill covered with dead vegetation".
22 Karatsuyu is translated in Nelson as "dry rainy season".
The KKSJ dictionary presents only the entry karada for designating the body, whereas the kanji "肉 niku" (Yamaguchi 2008, 500) is categorised as a word that addresses the meat, the flesh of an animal. In contrast, as shown before, the KRS registers niku 肉 within the word group 身体/人のからだ, i.e. the shintai/karada (身体), considered as a hito no karada 人のからだ (the body of a person, human body) (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). The meaning of niku 肉 displayed in KRS is "the nikutai (in contrast to the soul)" (Ōno, Hamanishi 1981, 504). 26 The Nippo jisho, published by the Jesuit Mission Press in Nagasaki in 1603, is mentioned in many lexicographic sources. 27 A supplement of this dictionary has been brought out in 1604. The Nippo jisho and its supplement list together more than 32,000 entries. As Michael Cooper (1980, 513) underlines, its Japanese translation Hōyaku Nippo jisho 邦訳日葡辞書 (1980), which includes the supplement and is edited by Doi Tadao, Morita Takeshi and Chōnan Minoru, has turned into a precious linguistic document even for Japanese scholars.
It is worth to point out that the entry for shintai 身体, in this case xintai, is registered in the Japanese translation, but is not indexed in the Paribon, where we find only the homophone xintai indicating the Japanese word shintai 神体 (Ishizuka 1976), the divine body, or godbody in a Shintō shrine, as Nelson has it. This means that the word has been added later in the supplement.
It is explained that da ダ is a type of suffix that adds the meaning of "hosting a soul (tamashii 魂)". Mi 身 is indicated as a general expression in ancient language and it is added that karada 體 does not appear in classical literature such as Genji monogatari. As a consequence, kara (空, 虚) was used to signify the outer form (gaikei) such as the word nakigara 亡骸 (remains, corpse) (Sugimoto 2005, 215).
A precious information given by this dictionary is the cross reference for mukuro ムクロ indicated in the etymological explanation for karada (Sugimoto 2005, 215-16). Mukuro is prevailingly provided as a word standing for the dead body, as we have seen in KRS, 33 but it is also a word employed generically for 'body'. 34 In the Gogenkai it is specifically argued that it may be that in ancient times the word mukuro ムクロ indicated the body of a living person (Sugimoto 2005, 215
In reference to the entry karada (からだ/体), the first definition provided in KKJ is "the nikutai of a human being and an animal" (Tōgō 2003, 276).
I noticed that the entry nikushin does not appear, for instance, as a synonym in the list compiled in KRS. Also the Kenkyūsha dictionary does not contemplate it, whereas in Nelson the word nikushin is translated as "the flesh, the body; kindred, blood relationship".
36 Gottlieb (2005, 15) points at the two ways of defining Japanese language: the term kokugo (language of our country, our language) and nihongo (language of Japan). The former is used by native speakers and designates in the school system the Japanese language classes and textbooks destined for the Japanese. The language taught to foreigners or outside Japan is called nihongo, as promoted by Japan Foundation since the 1970s (Gottlieb 2005, 15). An explanation that is added in this dictionary is that karada can be defined as the nikutai that for instance has temporarily lost consciousness or is sleeping (NKDJ [1972(NKDJ [ ] 2001(NKDJ [ , 1081.
The NKDJ cites in reference to shintai しんたい (身体), pointing out that its ancient reading was also shindai しんだい, the following explanation: Utsushimi is defined in the NKDJ as "the same as utsusemi". The Kenkyūsha dictionary translates utsushimi as "this present body, this (one's) present existence; this mortal frame; this world (life); temporal things. A cicada; the cast-off skin of a cicada".
The following example is taken from Saikoku risshi hen 西国立志編

Ichikawa Hiroshi's Analysis of mi: An Alternative to Phenomenology
As mentioned in the introduction, alongside the etymons provided by the monolingual dictionaries, the illustrated terms related to 'body' may gain further singular nuances that change from author to author, artist to artist, when these words are inserted in a certain discussion. Therefore, in order to highlight the complex lexical system and its multi-layered readings, in the following sections are presented examples of discourses concerning corporeality offered by Ichikawa Hiroshi and Uno Kuniichi. Rather than investigating philosophical insights in the strict sense, the aim in these sections is to illustrate the ways these terms are sensed, perceived and employed by the single authors, and the hybrid dimension intrinsic to the polysemous character of corporeality.
In his 'Mi' no kōzō: Shintairon o koete 〈身〉 の構造:身体論を超えて (The Structure of 'mi': Beyond the Theory on the shintai [1993] 2007), Ichikawa Hiroshi presents a further panorama of analysis and lexi-cal diversification that helps to understand how in Japanese philosophy the discourse on the body unfolds as an alternative possibility of methodology.
First of all, it is important to underline that the gravitational point in Ichikawa's thought shifts from the shintairon 身体論, the theory/ theories on the corporeality called shintai 身体, to the miron 身論, the theory on the corporeality called mi 身. The shintairon includes a vast range of theories on the body or discourses on the body developed in the last century. Especially during the 1970s, these theories have been widely influenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, 39 when the term shintai definitely emerged as a protagonist among its synonyms to denote the 'body' in philosophical and sociological terms. 40 It appears evident that Ichikawa signals the necessity of also rethinking phenomenology by suggesting a path for remapping the thought that addresses the body, and its constitutional elements of hermeneutics and epistemology.
In introducing his discussion on the structure of mi 身, Ichikawa explains the reason he chose this word instead of shintai 身体, which, according to the philosopher, is loaded with the history of the bodymind dualism: In doing so, one ends up by dragging a way of thinking restrained by the European-style mind-body dichotomy, and the history of theories based on this dichotomy.
39 Important philosophers who exerted their influence on Japanese shintairon are, among others, Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson. In contemporary thought the prevailing influence is exerted by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Giorgio Agamben. is the passage in cultural, artistic, aesthetic, critical and literary discourses from the 1960s' "age of the nikutai", as defined, for instance, by Ueno Kōshi (1989), to the 1970s' 'age of the shintai'. Some problems of the phenomenological theory in relation to the vast domain of corporealities in Hijikata's writing and dancing practice are discussed in Centonze 2018b. Noteworthy in this passage is the use of the term bodi ボディ (body) 41 in order to designate the 'body' displayed in "European-style" thought. The same might be said of the term maindo マインド (mind).
A further detail I would like to stress is that, according to Ichikawa, the word shintai may stand in opposition to seishin, whereas we have seen above that, according to some dictionaries, such as KRS, the antonym for seishin is nikutai. Ichikawa ([1993Ichikawa ([ ] 2007 affirms that the yamato kotoba 大和言 葉 42 み (mi; in this case written in hiragana) is endowed with a broad meaning and, when connected with the kango 漢語 43 身 (mi), it eventually spreads its semantic area further. Ichikawa (79) proposes that mi 身 1. expresses very well the dynamics of our concrete living shintai; 2. carries within it the possibility of a categorisation that differs from the binomial schematisation between spirit (seishin 精 神) and body (buttai 物体), or spirit (seishin) and body (shintai 身体).
Here we encounter a further term that may be used to indicate the body, not included in the aforementioned list of synonyms for the human body registered by KRS or in the other dictionaries of synonyms: buttai 物体, which means "a body; a physical solid; an object; a substance; a material object", as Kenkyūsha has it. Ichikawa (79) explicitly stresses that it is not his intention to force the spread of a nativist spirit of Japan (nihonshugifū 日本主義風) by addressing a special category linked to a special national language (kokugo 国語) called 'Japanese language', but that he senses mi み as a universal category. In Ichikawa's view (79), the category of mi expresses our concrete being in a better way, if compared to the word bodi ボディ and other similar words. As a consequence, the philosopher's (79) aim is to explore the possibility of systemising the body in an order that does not pertain to dualism. Ichikawa (80) lists several ways of usage and acceptations in Japanese of the word mi 身.
1. み and 身 probably share the same root with mi 実, which means 'fruit', 'seed', 'berry', and therefore indicate a natural existence filled with content (nakami 中身, i.e. lit. 'the body inside') and substance (naiyō 内容). Here it is important to note that in this latter example we are confronted with a further characteristic of Japanese written language, the ateji (lit. 'assigned character'), 44 which is produced when kanji are arbitrarily associated with completely different pronunciations, thus changing semantic nuance in different contexts: the kanji of 肉, which normally reads niku, appears in this case with the attributed reading mi.
4. Mi 身 may reflect slightly more than niku 肉 the sense of a living body, the ikimi 生き身, therefore its meaning may coincide with the living body (ikite iru karada 生きているからだ) as a whole. In this acceptation, Ichikawa offers the paradigm "being pregnant, and as a result give birth to a child" (mimochi ni natte, sono kekka mi futatsu ni naru 身もちになって、 その 結果身二つになる) 45 (80). 5. Since the living body (ikimi 生き身) manifests different modes of being, mi may be associated with the pluralistic modes of being of the body (karada からだ) as, for example, in the expression 'writhe' (mimodaesuru 身もだえする) and "take an oblique stance; assume a diagonal stance against one's opponent" (hanmi ni kamaeru はん 半 み 身にかまえる). Ichikawa (80-1) explains that in this case mi displays the mizama み 身 ざま 様, a word that designates the state of being, the conditions, aspect, situation, circumstance of the body. 6. Here Ichikawa (81) argues that "since people (ningen) are not naked, and put on their body (mi ni tsukeru 身につける) 46 several items, mi indicates the clothes one wears or something one wears on one's body as an accessory". 47 7. Mi is linked to the concrete living of a person, and its meaning is correlated to life (seimei 生命) and its incomparable value. 44 The Kenkyūsha dictionary defines ateji as a kanji "used as a phonetic symbol rather than for its meaning; an arbitrarily used substitute character".
46 Mi ni tsukeru means literally 'to apply (something) onto one's body'. A further meaning of mi ni tsukeru is 'to learn', 'to acquire knowledge'. See also other expressions below that denote the strict link between knowledge and the body. 8. Ichikawa (81) argues that in this sense mi is strictly linked to society, because the living existence is achieved concretely within society. Therefore, he states, mi signifies the social living existence, thus the existence linked to quotidian life and work (as in case of the expression miuri 身売り, used for 'prostitute oneself'). 9. The following passage in Ichikawa's (81) speculation is related to the self within a social system, thus mi leads to linguistic constructions such as mitsukara/mizukara 身つから (自ら), i.e. 'oneself'. Therefore, we may find it in relation to personal thoughts, to one's own advantage and to a sort of individual freedom in respect to others, such as in the expression mi no tame 身のため, which means 'for oneself; for one's own good' 10.  considers that, since the grammatical category of person (ninshō 人称) displays a variety of selves, mi also takes the rank of various persons. In brief, mi signifies the self which is multi-layered in its grammatical person. For example, midomo 身ども means 'I', migara 身が等 is used to indicate the personal pronoun 'we'. This self is certainly considered to be inserted into a social system, and Ichikawa suggests the 11th typology of mi as the socialised self, giving the example of miuchi 身内 (relative, family), an expression that displays blood relationship (ketsuen 血縁) or a shared territorial bond (chien 地縁). The 12th aspect of mi, viewed as a socialised self, is the social role or position such as in the expression mi no hodo 身のほど (one's social position; one's place), or mi o tateru 身をたてる, which means to 'establish oneself in life' (82).
The 13th aspect proposed by the philosopher (82-3) is that mi can be in a synonymic relation with kokoro 心, as for example in the locution mi ni shimiru 身にしみる, used when something soaks into the body or into the heart/inside, when someone is moved by something, or perceives a piercing cold; indeed, in these cases one can use as well the expression kokoro ni shimiru 心にしみる. Nevertheless, Ichikawa (83) lays emphasis on the former expression, which has a stronger impact, because it works on the conscious as well as on the unconscious level. The same is if we compare the expression kokoro o awasu 心を あわす (to be in harmony, to be connected) to mi o awasu 身をあわす, which expresses a broader experience, because it carries the nuance of becoming a unit that includes the whole body and the whole spirit (zenshin zenrei 全身全霊). 48 As a consequence, and this is suggested as the 14th meaning, mi is understood as the existence in its totality (zentaisonzai 全体存在), an entirety which embraces the corporeal sphere without excluding the spiritual/mental one, as in the expression mi o motte shiru 身をもって知る (know first-hand) (83). 49 In conclusion, Ichikawa (84) states that the English word 'body' (ボディ) and the Japanese word karada からだ are monostratum-words, which implies that, for Ichikawa, mi 身 is endowed with a multi-layered character. It is stressed that the English word 'body' (ボディ) has the meaning of buttai 物体, and also of buttaitekina shintai 物体的な 身体 (a solid/material/physical human body), and that the Japanese term karada からだ is strictly linked to the kara 殻 (a hull, a shell, a pod) 50 in momigara 籾殻 (hull rice), 51 to something dry like the stem, to the body without life, to the corpse, and to the emptiness (84).

Translating Corporeality (?)
As Ichikawa has introduced, it seems not easy to find the proper correspondences in foreign languages for the diverse definitions of corporeality coined in Japanese.
The ambiguity pertaining to the usage of body-terms in Japanese culture is all the more evident when we try to translate aesthetic or philosophical texts centred on corporeality.
Since it is not my intention to specifically address in this article the complex translational problems implied when approaching writings dealing with several terms for 'body', 52 I would like to simply list here and confront the translations offered in the Japanese-English dictionaries Nelson and Kenkyūsha.
For the compound 身体, the Nelson dictionary offers the two readings shintai and karada, followed by the translation "the body".
The translation given by the Kenkyūsha dictionary for shintai 身体 is "the body; the person; the system", and for shintai no 身体の, "bodily; physical; corporal".
The compound 肉体 nikutai is rendered in English by the Nelson dictionary as "the flesh, the body". It should be underlined that many expressions of knowledge and memory are composed with the terms mi, karada and shintai.
50 The online dictionary Weblio provides for the same kanji also the reading gara, translated as "chicken (stock) bones; a chicken carcass; 2) poor-quality coke; 3) leftovers; remnants; remains".
A further analysis of the English translations for the single signcomponents that constitute the words shintai and nikutai gives us information also about the rendering and semantic area of mi and karada: 体 The Nelson dictionary lists in reference to this sign the on'yomi (the Chinese style reading of a character) "tai" translated as "the body; substance; object; reality; style, form; image counter".
The kanji 体 can also be pronounced tei, and symbolises "appearance, air; condition, state, form". The verb taisuru means "obey, comply with; keep in mind". The substantive karada, that is to say its kun'yomi (the Japanese style reading of a character), is translated as "body; health".
The Kenkyūsha dictionary offers for karada the translations "a body; the [one's] (whole) body; the [one's] trunk [torso]; the body".

身
The Nelson dictionary classifies this sign with the on'yomi "shin", and the kun'yomi "mi" and "karada". The translations presented are: "body; person; the quick; one's station in life; self; heart, soul, mind; ability; flesh, meat; life; blade; container; garment width". The verb mijirogu is rendered in its English translation as "stir (oneself) slightly" and the substantive migonashi "deportment".

肉
The sign 肉, also written 宍, is categorised in the Nelson dictionary (1997, 893) under the on'yomi "niku" and is translated as "flesh, muscles; meat; the flesh; seal pad, ink pad; thickness, succulence". A further reading is the kun'yomi "shishi", translated as "muscles; meat". It is specified, that today the sign 宍 is only read shishi.
In his study "2001nen no shintai 2001", Uno Kuniichi (2000, disciple and translator of Gilles Deleuze, suggests the problems that shintairon generates, and the complexity hidden behind the translation into foreign language of the words shintai, karada and nikutai. The scholar begins his interrogation on the body from his own body. Uno (2000, 17-18) first observes what he has in front of his eyes, thus starting from a visual perspective. While sitting in front of his desk, he sees his hands on the keyboard typing the essay on the body, i.e. on the shintai 身体. 53 These hands seem to be his own hands and to belong to his shintai. He also acknowledges the body-parts, such as the thighs and abdomen, which are not concealed under the desk and are visible to him (18). The philosopher states that "[h]ere is my shintai and this shintai is writing" (18), and adds that his body (shintai) is urged by his consciousness (ishiki 意識) to write. This consciousness is melted into the shintai. He knows that he cannot separate himself from the body, but at the same time it is dismembered, because he abruptly feels the typing hands as if detached from his body, in other words he grasps his body as the object of investigation (taishō 対象) (18). Uno affirms that he is the body, and he is not the body. 54 I am the body [shintai 身体], and I am not. When I say "my" body, it is as if the body that 'belongs' to me is distinguished from myself. Though, I cannot think that I can exist only as a soul/spirit [tamashii 魂] without my body. I am neither more nor less than this body. However, I am by no means this body itself, and between me and the body there is always a sort of chasm.
I wonder if this chasm is the spirit/mind [seishin 精神] or the consciousness. (18) Uno (18) further assumes that it is also impossible that the mind and the consciousness are the same, and suggests that the distance in between may be called the body (shintai).
It is evident that the personal pronoun 'I' (watashi 私) becomes fundamental to Uno's discourse, although projected into a perspective of Verfremdung. 53 Observing and sensing one's body, while writing on the body, is a common issue also in dance studies related to the concept of "bodily writing". As Foster (2010, 291) highlights, "[a] body, whether sitting writing or standing thinking or walking talking or running screaming, is a bodily writing. Its habits and stances, gestures, and demonstrations, every action of its various regions, areas, and parts -all these emerge out of cultural practices, verbal or not, that construct corporeal meaning." 54 I intentionally respect here the Japanese sentence-construction, where the possessive pronoun is not used. At the same time  creates a sort of distance between him and the theory on the body stating that he is interested in and surprised by it, but that he also has a suspicion about the "so-called shintairon" and its specialists. What he tries to investigate is the reason why the shintai becomes such a problem. A series of questions follow: According to Uno (19), the only one who knows his/her shintai is oneself, who coexists with the shintai. Nevertheless, without scientific knowledge, we do not know our body as a doctor or a biologist does. At the same time, it is impossible to know exhaustively the shintai both from the outside and from the inside (19). He states that "the shintai is neither inside of me, nor outside of me".
At this point the philosopher mentions three denominations of the body, that "nearly anyone might sense": shintai 身体, nikutai 肉体 and karada からだ. He argues that, depending on the point of view, the shintai is our "everything". As maintained by Uno (19), while it is in a "unity" (ittai 一体) with the soul (tamashii 魂), spirit (seishin 精神), mind (kokoro 心) and emotions (kanjō 感情), it is also independent. This makes it that the living shintai (ikita shintai 生きた身体), ours and that of the others (tasha 他者), cannot be a mere object of investigation or "object" (kyakutai 客体) for us and for others. There is the other (alter) called "my shintai" (watashi no shintai 私の身体), and this other has further others (19).
Consulting the etymon for corps in a French dictionary, i.e. "la partie matérielle des êtres animés", 55 the Japanese philosopher expresses his enthusiastic admiration, because, as he puts it, this definition fits the material part of the shintai (19). However, Uno also adds that the burdensome point is "that the shintai is an animated being/lived existence ('ikita' sonzai 「生きた」存在) (19). Since it is a living/animated material (ikita busshitsu 生きた物質), and a lived one (ikirarete iru 生きられている), it refuses to be captured as a part and resists being made an object of investigation.
Uno individuates the problems in verbally designating the shintai, which is actually lacking, or lost, or lost from sight. It is not ap- propriately thought (20). In brief, Uno argues, that it is cursed. As he writes, "[t]hen, it is made roaming in the chain of consumption and exchange, after being dressed with the values of pleasure, health and beauty" (20). Actually, we do not know what we are questioning, when we talk about the shintai, and the reason why we are investigating it is not understood as well (20).
In order to demonstrate that the unity between the mind and the body has also been affirmed in European philosophical tradition, Uno (20) quotes from Kudō Kisaku's and Saitō Hiroshi's translation (Etika エティカ, 1980) the propositio 2 included in the third part "De origine et natura affectuum" of Baruch Spinoza's Ethica (1677) 56 and other statements concerning the body that appear in this section. It is interesting to note here that the Latin word corpus employed in Spinoza's treatise is translated as shintai 身体 in Japanese, and that mens is rendered in Japanese seishin 精神. By shifting then the attention to Friedrich Nietzsche's Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882; 1887) (Yorokobashiki chishiki 悦ばしき知識, translated by Shida Shōzō and published in 1993), in the wake of the re-reading of philosophical tradition by his mentor Gilles Deleuze, Uno introduces Nietzsche's thought as a "more direct way of talking about the nikutai". The quoted passage regards the misunderstanding produced by philosophical history concerning the 'body' denounced by Nietzsche, who in this case refers to the particular German term Leib. 57 In relation to this specific context and thought, the Japanese translation by Shida presents the word nikutai 肉体 for Leib.
It is here that Uno (2000, 22) affirms that also in European philosophy, interrogations about the shintai or nikutai have been developed. Nevertheless, he encloses in parentheses the question of whether the translation of shintai and nikutai, or the Japanese translations of the foreign terms, might generate a difference of nuance and further problems. Some reflections on the contraposition between shintai and seishin follow.
The first clarification made, is that, in reference to karada, the word shintai is preferred over nikutai when the discourse concerns the philosophical realm (23). I would like to argue that this enunciation implies that the word karada may indicate the term 'body' in a broader sense with respect to the other two words.
In brief, Uno (23) tries to categorise these three corporealities in the following way (cf. Centonze 2018a, 24-5): 1) Nikutai 肉体: is on the organic side and adjacent to flesh.  suggests that it corresponds to the French etymon chair, which also refers to niku.
2) Shintai 身体: belongs, according to Uno (24), rather to the category of object/ solid (buttai 物体) and assumes, in a certain sense, a neutral and inorganic aspect. The scholar mentions the possible French translation corps. Uno (24) states that it is certain that shintai and nikutai are basically employed as synonyms, therefore, by no means are these words rigorously distinguished or separated. He further states that, when we question the shintai, we inquire after the nikutai at the same time. In any case, he concludes, it is not self-evident what shintai means or is.
3) Karada からだ: might correspond to both nikutai as well as to shintai. Uno (24) suggests that karada moves in an oscillating way between the former and the latter, while embracing more shintai rather than the nikutai. The term karada is always written in hiragana in Uno's text. As a consequence, he implicitly employs the wago からだ (term of Japanese origin) in this essay and not its corresponding kanji 体.
In addition, it seems that we think that by means of the term shintai, rather than by means of the word nikutai, we are able to consider the "karada" within a slightly wider amplitude and context, but, after all, the swaying of our thought concerning the karada is contained in the difference between these two words. (Uno 2000, 24) Furthermore, Uno stresses that at the very least we cannot avoid the intricateness of the question, because even if we try to look for the exact and precise meaning, the Japanese term からだ originally signifies the shitai 死体 (the dead body).