Engrish.com

Doryoku – “Effort / Endeavor”

Literal Translation: “Effort; Endeavor; Hard Working”

Overview:
“ Doryoku”, meaning “effort” or “endeavor, is an important ethic/value of Japanese culture. The Japanese are known as perfectionists and it is the spirit of “doryoku” that often spurs them on.

Details/Background:
Doryoku is an essential element to understanding Japanese culture. It is one of the key concepts in their work ethic – to make as much effort as possible toward achieving a goal.
“ Doryoku” is used often in martial arts training. In Karate for example one of the five precepts which all students of Karate should adhere to is: “Doryoku no seishin o yashinau koto” - or “Endeavour (in all training)”. Gichin Funakoshi, widely regarded as the father of modern karate, wrote the “dojo-kun” or five precepts / guiding principles of Karate. The traditional English translations of the 5 precepts include:
SEEK PERFECTION OF CHARACTER!
BE FAITHFUL!
ENDEAVOR!
RESPECT OTHERS!
REFRAIN FROM VIOLENT BEHAVIOR!
In sports, you can see “doryoku” being practiced on the baseball field with marathon pre-game practice in the hot and muggy Japanese Summer. What might be looked upon as crazy by westerners (and admittedly some Japanese) is simply an expected expression of ‘doryoku’ to the Japanese baseball player. The Japanese sometimes take the concept of practice makes perfect to an extreme level in this fashion.

Design Notes: The word “Doryoku” is popular in Japanese calligraphy so we used a calligraphy type of font.