# 我羇道



## Seikun

Hi.
What does 我羇道 (gakido) mean? It is the name of a band, but I can't find the meaning of the second kanji.

Thanks.


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## Arui Kashiwagi

According to a kanji dictionary;
羇 = "a travel" (Originally it meant a headgear for a horse).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/羇

Probably they want us to interpret their name as something like "My journey road" or "Going my way".
(In addition, it's perhaps a pun for 餓鬼道 _gakido_ - The world of pretas in Buddhism)

But honestly, 羇 is one of the seldom seen kanji. I believe most Japanese people will never see this kanji even once in a lifetime, if they are not a fan of that band.
For some reason, there are people who tend to pick a rare kanji for their works just because it looks cool to them...


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## Seikun

Interesting.
It may be related to the fact that some of their songs talk about being strong and brave to face life.

Thank you^^


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## Aoyama

> But honestly, 羇 is one of the seldom seen kanji. I believe most Japanese people will never see this kanji even once in a lifetime, if they are not a fan of that band.
> _For some reason, there are people who tend to pick a rare kanji for their works just because it looks cool to them..._


Very true. This kanji will also be rare for Chinese native speakers as well.
The only thing is the reading "ki", which, even if the kanji is very rare/unusual, can be easily infered, because of the "ki" part, so the idea of a pun is also very possible.


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## almostfreebird

In everyday conversation, ガキ is a mean word or offensive word which is used when you call or refer to younger persons than you or to kids. English equivalent would be, on a case-by-case basis, "naughty boy", "brat" or "bastard", etc.

Maybe the band "我羇道" pretend to be "badass".


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## Aoyama

That would involve another pun, between 我羇 and ガキ. Possible ...


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## Seikun

Thew website that Arui provided also shows the pronunciation in Korean and interestingly this band sings in Korean as they proclaimed themselves (first Visual Kei band to sing in Korean).

Thanks for all the answers^^


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## almostfreebird

According to various websites, the band had a serious car accident last year and  one of them died.


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## lammn

Aoyama said:


> Very true. This kanji will also be rare for Chinese native speakers as well.



While the kanji/hanzi 羇 is rare in Chinese language, I find from WWWJDIC that it has another writing 羈.

羈 is quite a common character in Chinese language and is often used in the word 不羈, which is used to describe a person who is free from authorities control and wants to do things according to his own way only. It is quite cool to use it in a band name, because it has kind of わがまま feel.


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## Aoyama

羈 sounds more logical, as it bears the kanji/hanzi "horse" and the thing deals with some horse gear. In fact, if you check the dictionary, you find that both kanjis are read "ki" (or "ji"1-flat tone- in Chinese). 羇 is normally used for names of places (rare) whereas 羈 is really used for the horse gear stuff (in Japanese as well). I guess, in short, that use of 羇 is just ... ornamental.


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