Question 人馬一体

[Nick1984]

Hi all, I have heard that Mazda have a motto or philosophy known as 人馬一体 (Jinba ittai), which I believe means "horse and rider in perfect harmony/unity". I don't know whether this is just a clever bit of marketing to attract customers here in Europe, and whether the phrase really means what Mazda want us to think it means!

My question is: does this phrase have a broad enough meaning to include a person and any machine, for example a motorcycle and its rider?

Are there any alternative phrases that give the same meaning, particularly relating to a motorcycle and its rider?

Thank you in advance

 

[Toritoribe]

does this phrase have a broad enough meaning to include a person and any machine, for example a motorcycle and its rider?

Yes.

Are there any alternative phrases that give the same meaning, particularly relating to a motorcycle and its rider?

There is no problem to use the phrase to a motorcycle, or more likely, it's better fit to a motorcycle rather than a car.

 

[bentenmusume]

Hi all, I have heard that Mazda have a motto or philosophy known as 人馬一体 (Jinba ittai), which I believe means "horse and rider in perfect harmony/unity". I don't know whether this is just a clever bit of marketing to attract customers here in Europe, and whether the phrase really means what Mazda want us to think it means!

My question is: does this phrase have a broad enough meaning to include a person and any machine, for example a motorcycle and its rider?

I'm not entirely sure what you're uncertain of here. You understand the (literal) meaning of the phrase, and it's pretty clear that Mazda is taking a phrase referring to horse and rider and using poetic license/metaphor to apply it to the relationship between car and driver. There are no specific rules governing poetic license/metaphor, but I'd say it's pretty clear that if you used it in the context of a motorcycle/rider it would convey the same meaning. (For other "machines" or vehicles which can't be likened to a horse, it probably would feel a bit off.)

Are there any alternative phrases that give the same meaning, particularly relating to a motorcycle and its rider?

If you mean you want to take the phrase and adjust it so it's specifically referencing a motor vehicle/motorcycle rather than a metaphorical horse, there are ways you could do that. You could, for example take the 馬 character and replace it with something like:

人車一体 (Jinsha ittai, with "sha" being the character for a motor vehicle)
人バ一体 (Jinba ittai, read the same as the original but with the katakana バ used in バイク/motorcycle instead of the kanji for horse)

...to get a play on words. (Doing a quick internet search turned up at least a few examples of people doing this.)

Or you could explicitly say バイクと一体（になる） or the like. Doing a quick internet search also turned up other related slogans/phrases like バイクに耳を傾けて.

The meaning is completely different, but I also like this motto came across very much:
おまえは風だ

Anyhow, hope this helps!

 

[mdchachi]

Assuming he's doing due diligence before he inks this phrase permanently into his skin, then it makes sense to ask a lot of questions even if they may seem obvious.

 

[bentenmusume]

Haha....did I miss something where the OP specifically said this was for a tattoo?

And whoops, I didn't even notice that Toritoribe-san had answered before me. Apologies for not acknowledging and for offering perhaps redundant/superfluous information.

 

[mdchachi]

Haha....did I miss something where the OP specifically said this was for a tattoo?

No just my guess.

 

[Nick1984]

Thank you to everybody for your helpful replies
(Also, it's not for a tattoo - possibly a decal though...)

I like @bentenmusume's suggestion of
"人バ一体", and was interested to know that it is pronounced/spoken the same, despite the change of katakana.

 

[Toritoribe]

The pronunciation is the same, as bentenmusume-san wrote, but the word play works well only in a specific context. To my native eyes, it seemed to be a typo or something at a first glance since motorcycle is usually not abbreviated as バ. In other words, if you write the phrase on your motorcycle, it might be OK.

 

[bentenmusume]

Yes, as the person who originally mentioned it, let me clarify that this is not a common variation on 人馬一体, or wordplay that every person is going to "get" at a glance.

If you Google the phrase, you can find scattered examples of native speakers using it, but like Toritoribe-san says, if you want to ensure that people understand the reference you'll have to make sure the context is very clear that you're talking about a motorcycle:

朝バイ活動というトレーニング : BLITZ WORKS 俺のブログ by ローリー青野

FTR223ボニーブルーに乗り出して1週間ちょっと。昔は車にはハマってましたが…今の車はコンピューター制御下で走る空間的意味が強いので移動手段としてしか乗ってませんが、バイクは違いますね！！！教習所のCB400と愛機FTRしか知りませんが…ミッションを操って、身体でバラ

blog.livedoor.jp

偵察用オートバイ

Steam Community :: Screenshot :: 人バ一体！

Steam Community: FUEL. 人バ一体！

steamcommunity.com

 

[Nick1984]

Thank you for clarifying that

It seems I may do well to stick to the more commonly recognised "horse & rider" metaphor after all. As always, I appreciate and enjoy reading all of the comments and suggestions. Thank you all