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1. Teacher or instructor usually of 3rd Dan rank or above, however, many ryu allow any black belt to use the title of Sensei. Sensei of martial arts usually live and/or work at a dojo, where they teach. However, such teachers, especially in fictions written by and for Japanese, are more commonly referred to as ShishÅ or Shihan. As both of them are usually translated as master, using Sensei would be considered derogatory and insulting.
2. Is a generic Japanese term for "master", "teacher" or "doctor". It can be used to refer to any authority figure, such as schoolteacher, professor, priest, lawyer, or politician. It can be used on both genders.
3. Sensei is most commonly used in a school, by both students and teachers and is considered a more friendly term than calling him or her by the family name plus sensei (as an honorific). A male teacher Ichiro Tanaka would initially be called "Tanaka Sensei" by his students and after a while, students switch to "Sensei" or "Ichiro Sensei" depending on how Tanaka Sensei would like to be called. Fellow teachers may call each other Sensei after getting familiar, but when they consider each other friends, they usually start calling each other by the family name alone, the first name, or by a nickname. Females are more likely to call each other by the first name after becoming friends. In many Zen schools, Sensei is normally used to refer to ordained teachers below the rank of Roshi. However, other Zen Buddhists use the term for any priest regardless of seniority.
Also see: O-Sensei, Shihan, Shinan, Sempai, Shisho, Roshi
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