#dunjia

Ok, I’m certainly learning about a lot of new things as I read through Kozure Ookami. Chapter 7′s title is 八門遁甲の陣 (hachimon tonkou no jin), which roughly means something like The Mystical Eight Door Battle Formation.

The English translation for Lone Wolf calls this chapter Eight Gates of Deceit.

So what’s the deal?

遁甲 (tonkou) refers to a type of Eastern astrology. In particular, there’s something called Qimen Dunjia, which in Chinese is usually spelled 寄門遁甲, which is an ancient form of divination from China. It was originally used with figuring out military tactics. It uses a 3x3 grid.

I’m not exactly sure where “bamen” (八門) comes into play. But either way, Japanese audiences are probably familiar enough with the term  遁甲 to understand the meaning here.

Western readers are probably much less familiar with the terms, and so they’ve chosen a different tact in translation. As far as I can tell, nothing in this title suggests “deceit,” and so the English translators are probably using something that happens in the chapter.