I.M.Possible » japanese http://www.johanmk.com What is impossible with men is possible with God Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:09:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Why do Japanese eat katsu-don before a match? http://www.johanmk.com/2010/03/04/why-do-japanese-eat-katsu-don-before-a-match/ http://www.johanmk.com/2010/03/04/why-do-japanese-eat-katsu-don-before-a-match/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:01:00 +0000 Johan http://www.johanmk.com/?p=91 Katsu (カツ), is a famous Japanese dish which generally refers to any kind of a deep-fried meat. Even though it is commonly understood as a tonkatsu (豚カツ, pork cutlet), sometimes it can also be understood as a torikatsu (鳥カツ, chicken cutlet).

The word 'katsu' itself can also be written in a different way as 勝つ, which is read in exactly the same say (a homophone).
Katsu (勝つ) means "to win" or "to gain victory". (e.g. 試合に勝つ!, shiai ni katsu! = I'll win the game!)

This is why Japanese sportsmen eat katsu-don (カツ丼 = a rice bowl topped with deep-fried meat) the day before a big match. Japanese students do the same too before taking big tests or school entrance examinations.

So,, it is OK to say:

A katsu-don (カツ丼 = rice bowl with cutlet) is
a katsu-don (勝つ丼 = winning rice bowl). :D



Do you know that the famous finger-snack Kit-Kat, is called "kitto-katsu (キットカツ)" in Japanese?
Kitto-Katsu, can also be written as きっと勝つ, which means "definitely win!"

\^_^/

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