Make sure you get your ball back afterwards

一球入魂
i-.kkyuu.nyuu.kon

Literally: one – sphere – enter / insert – soul

Alternately: This phrase from the world of baseball refers to putting your full energy and focus into each action; specifically, putting everything you can into each throw of the ball.

Notes: This is a compound of compounds. 一球 is a simple number-noun phrase, of course, but 入魂 is more interesting; pronounced jukon (or jikkon or jukkon), it means “intimacy,” “familiarity.” Even as a term for “putting a soul into something,” it can refer to an act that ensouls a physical object, cf. 画竜点睛 and 仏作って魂入れず.

Closing credits over banner

Cycling anime Yowamushi Pedal plays on this by replacing kyuu with rhyming 蹴 (shuu), “kick.”

About Confanity

I love the written word more than anything else I've had the chance to work with. I'm back in the States from Japan for grad school, but still studying Japanese with the hope of becoming a translator -- or writer, or even teacher -- as long as it's something language-related.
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