カンフー

1978 is the first example listed for カンフー in Shogakukan's Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, from Oyabu Haruhiko's Youhei-tachi no Banka. The source is Chinese 功夫, Mandarin gōngfu. In Chinese, 功夫 can mean time, effort, skill, accomplishment, or martial ability, depending on the phrase and period. Digital Daijisen defines カンフー as Chinese boxing and gives クンフー as a variant. Japanese カンフー grew with the 1970s martial-arts film boom. Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon appeared in 1973, and English kung fu, based on Wade-Giles kung-fu and Cantonese-style spellings, shaped many foreign-language titles. Japanese already had 空手, 拳法, and 中国拳法, so カンフー entered as a film and martial-arts label rather than a broad word for skill. The cited 1978 novel places the word in a Singapore scene. Modern Japanese カンフー usually points to Chinese martial arts, a performer, or a film genre, as in カンフー映画. Mandarin 功夫 can still mean effort spent on cooking, study, or craft, not only fighting. English kung fu has a similar martial-arts focus, but it also appears in slang for expertise. Example: 料理の功夫 in Chinese is not usually カンフー料理 in Japanese.