Sunday, November 25, 2012

from: Brian T. 
to: "" 
subject: Trust in God Tattoo? 






  1. In China, 神 is used for "spirits," but in Japan, it can mean the Abrahamic God. However, 信用 is the wrong sort of "trust," as you wrote.

  2. As Carl says, the Abrahamic God is also 神 in Japanese, and 信用 isn't so bad in Japanese. It is associated with money e.g. mutual trust credit union 信用金庫 (lit trust bank or safe). But 信用 is also used to mean trust and trust-worthy e.g. 信用ある人間 a trusted person. But there is a word in Japanese for trust in God which is just 信神. Note that the trust (信) comes before the god (神) in Chinese compounds, which have (S)VO word order like English. The above has three characters 神信用, which Chinese compounds never have, so it looks like a Japanese construction. Since 信用 is a commonly used word the break does seem to come after the first character. It could be a contraction of I trust god (私は　神を信用しています）but to me it looks more like a request - "trust me god!" 神,信用してください!