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This is a guide to Japanese adventures and monsters for Western players, not a translation of (for example) AD&D into Japanese. Other people have already done the latter.
Warriors
Priests
Rogues
Wizards
Monsters
Other Fantasy Terms
Local Colour: Rural
Local Colour: Castles
Local Colour: Cities
N.B. grammatically, all terms are nouns unless stated otherwise.
The traditional Japanese fighter is the samurai. There are hundreds of samurai terms, of which I shall present a selection.
The other traditional Japanese fighter is the yakuza. The yakuza is a professional thug.
What about ninjya? They never really existed, and even if they did exist, they were priests, not warriors or rogues.
What about karate and other sorts of unarmed combat? This is embarrassing for the Japanese, and polite people do not mention it. karate comes from Okinawa. It was used by unarmed Okinawan peasants to defeat armed samurai. Something here does not add up. Can you imagine unarmed Scilly Isles peasants defeating armed Norman knights? Neither can I.
samurai: a traditional Japanese warrior, usually carrying two swords, both of exceptionally high quality, and wearing decorative armour which would not protect him from blows and would certainly not stop a well-aimed missile weapon.
bushi, bufu and mononofu (which, despite appearances, are simply different ways of pronuncing the same word) all mean the same as samurai.
buke: same as samurai. By implication, a buke comes from a samurai family (and the word can also refer to the family rather than the individual).
kobushi: same as samurai. By implication, a kobushi is an experienced samurai, not a novice.
wakazamurai: a young samurai. By implication, a wakazamurai is also inexperienced.
inakazamurai, goushi, kunizamurai: a rural samurai. inaka here means "field", gou here means "home town", and kuni here means "homeland", so the truly pedantic could distinguish between the three terms.
imozamurai: a rustic samurai. The difference seems to be that a imozamurai is definitely out-of-place in polite society, whereas an inakazamurai, kunizamurai or goushi, while not often finding himself in polite society, need not be out-of-place when he does. imo here means "potato".
rounin: a lordless samurai.
surounin: an impoverished rounin. The real down side of being a rounin is not the shame attached to the status, but the fact that rounin don't get paid. Eventually, the money runs out.
tenjikurounin: a wandering rounin.
inuzamurai: a cowardly samurai. They had them, and they had a word for them. inu here means "dog".
bukeyashiki: residence of a samurai.
chuugen: a samurai's attendant.
mushyashyugyou: samurai knight-errantry, seeking out monsters to kill for the purpose of gaining experience points.
bushidou: the samurai code of chivalry.
kiridoku: the rule allowing samurai to kill non-samurai without fear of punishment. The rule was, of course, written by a samurai.
kirihanasu decapitate (group 1 verb). samurai did a lot of this.
katana: sword. Actually, it does just mean "sword". However, by tradition, katana refers to the larger of the two swords carried by a samurai.
wakizashi: shortsword. Actually, it does just mean "shortsword". (To be strictly accurate, its literal meaning is "armpit difference", but the words have a more plausible secondary interpretation, "supporting role measure"). However, by tradition, wakizashi refers to the smaller of the two swords carried by a samurai.
Japan has two active, and not entirely compatible, religious traditions, Buddhism and Shinto. Most people practise both, just to be on the safe side. And if you really, really must have ninjya, they are priests too.
tera: temple. Often pronounced otera "honourable temple", as temples, like tea and sake, are honoured by tradition.
butsudou: Buddhism.
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zen: a Buddhist heresy. True Buddhists believe that everything is a delusion. zen Buddhists believe that even believing that everything is a delusion is itself a delusion. The belief that zen originated in Japan is yet another delusion.
jinjya: shrine.
jinguu: big shrine.
shintou: Shinto.
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fujyutsu: divination. The literal meaning is "shrine maiden skill". For linguistic reasons, practitioners of it must be female virgins. A practitioner of fujyutsu is called a fujyo.
mikoyose: sorcery. The dictionary suggests that this could be necromancy. For linguistic reasons, practitioners of it must be female virgins. kuchiyose is a variant of mikoyose in which the spells have only verbal components. A practitioner of mikoyose is called a miko.
Since miko is an alternate pronunciation of fu, there is no reason why fujyo and miko cannot be the same people. On this basis, I suggest that shrine maidens have spells from the spheres of divination and necromancy.
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The Japanese are notoriously honest. They will tell you so themselves, so it must be true. Does this mean that rogues do not exist in Japan? No, not at all. If anything, it means that those who do exist are more successful. However, most criminal activity in Japan is conducted by the yakuza, who achieve their ends by threat of violence rather than by subtlety, and who therefore must be classed as fighters.
warumono: rogue. Literally, it just means "bad person". I use this as a general term for less-than-honest people on the dark side of neutral alignment.
onnanibakeru: to change into a woman (group 2 verb, intransitive). Both actors and monsters do this, so there is also an entry in the monsters section. In the case of onnagata (male actors who specialise in female roles), the effect could be produced by make-up or by an illusion or transmutation spell. Since this term appears in most Japanese dictionaries, I suggest that the spell is low-level and well-known to bards (perhaps a longer-duration but less general version of change self or alter self). (The expression for actresses disguising themselves as men does not appear in the dictionary, although that happens frequently enough too, so perhaps that spell is less well-known.)
tejina: conjuring tricks. These may be magical cantrips, as practised by bards and novice wizards, or non-magical sleight of hand, as practised by rogues. A practitioner of tejina is called a tejinashi.
haikuhaiku as well as (or even instead of) singing. A well-aimed haiku can stop an army in its tracks.
Japanese is rather vague about magic and spells. Here are my suggestions.
The available schools of magic certainly include conjuration/summoning (there are a lot of demons around, as will be seen in the monsters section), enchantment/charm (even real-world history books record the existence of enchantresses), illusion/phantasm (foxes are notorious illusionists, and human illusionists can be assumed to have learnt some of their tricks), and lesser divination (fortune-tellers abound even in present-day Japan). They probably include alteration/transmutation too, although it is possible that apparent alterations are in fact achieved by clever use of illusion spells. It seems possible to justify including a school with limited divination and necromancy spells, but I have decided to include this in the cleric section instead (see fujyutsu and mikoyose). There is little linguistic evidence to suggest that invocation/evocation or abjuration were practiced in mediaeval Japan.
mahou: magic. The literal meaning is "demon-law", which implies that Japanese magic involves dealing with demons at some point in the proceedings. I suggest that the point at which demons are summoned is when a new spell is added to the wizard's spell-book - the knowledge of how to cast the spell is learnt from the summoned demon. The "learn spells" roll then indicates how well the demon's explanation was understood. What the demon gets out of it in return is unclear. Quite what all this means in terms of alignment is also unclear, but it seems likely that good-aligned people do not, as a rule, use magic.
mahouteki: magical (na adjective). As above.
maryoku: magical power. The suffix ryoku indicates mental strength. I suggest that this term refers to the wizard's casting level.
mahoutsukai: wizard. The literal meaning is "user of mahou".
sennin: wizard. I suggest, in the monsters section, that sennin are equivalent to magic-using silver dragons in human or humanoid form. There remains the possibility that a human hermit living in the mountains for a considerable length of time could learn magic from sennin and become a wizard himself. This would explain where good-aligned wizards come from, and why they are rare.
tataru: cast a spell (group 1 verb).
juubaku and juumon: spell. Although Japanese is no more clear about the distinctions between various sorts of spells than English is, the implications are that juubaku bind the victim in some way, and juumon are written spells. Casting either sort is, by implication, a malicious act.
bakeru, take the form of (group 2 verb). The bake part signifies change, transformation, disguise or deception. This could refer either to illusion spells, to transformation spells, or to both. I suggest that the term includes both. Oriental wizards, being notoriously deceptive, do not make it clear to onlookers whether they are using illusion or transmutation magic, and this verb describes what the onlooker sees, not how the wizard achieves the effect.
If bakeru referred to a school of magic, the school would be kejyutsu. However, this word is not in the dictionary.
majyutsu: conjuration. The literal meaning is "demon skill". A practitioner of majyutsu is called a majyutsushi.
koumajyutsu: conjuration. kou here signifies descent or submission. Presumably a koumajyutsushi has sold his soul to the summoned demon in return for additional powers.
youjyutsu: enchantment/charm. The literal meaning is "attractiveness skill". A practitioner of youjyutsu is called a youjyutsusha.
jyujyutsu: curse/charm. The literal meaning is "spell skill". I suggest that jyujyutsu is also part of the school of enchantment/charm: youjyutsu makes the victim react favourably to the spellcaster (e.g. charm person), while jyujyutsu is directed against the victim (e.g. hold person).
youjyo: enchantress. youjyutsusha can be of either sex; youjyo are specifically female.
miryousuru: charm (group 3 verb). Related words include miryoku "charisma" (the literal meaning is "charm power"), miryokuteki (a na adjective) "charming" or "fascinating", and miwaku "fascination" (the literal meaning is "charm bewilderment").
madoi: bewilderment. This is an alternative pronunciation of waku, as in the previous entry. I suggest that madoi is a generic term for mind magic, including both enchantment/charm and illusion/phantasm.
genjyutsu: illusion. The literal meaning is "phantasm skill". Traditionally, the material component of illusion spells is a leaf.
maboroshi: phantasm. This is a longer way of pronouncing gen, as in the previous entry. Related words include genzou "phantom likeness", gensou "imagined phantom", genkaku "perceived phantom" and genei "shadow phantom".
meimu: delusion (the literal meaning is "perplexity dream"). meimou "delusion" is related (the literal meaning is "reckless perplexity"), as are meiro and meikyuu, both of which mean "maze" or "labyrinth".
henjiru: change into (group 2 verb). henjiru can be either transitive or intransitive, so is a good word for polymorphing in general, including both polymorph self and polymorph other. hen as a na-adjective means "strange" and as a noun means "incident" or "disturbance".
kaeru: change (group 1 verb intransitive, group 2 verb transitive). This is actually an alternative pronunciation of hen, as in the previous entry. kaeru is a good word for transmutation of non-living things: the expressions katachitoirowokaeru "change the shape and colour of" and namariwokinnikaeru "turn lead into gold" are already in dictionaries. It is not the same word as kaeru "return" or kaeru "frog".
kawaru: undergo change (group 1 verb, intransitive). This is yet another pronunciation of hen/kaeru. kawaru is a good word for being the recipient or victim of someone else's polymorph other spell.
kijyutsu: magic. The literal meaning is "unusual skill", i.e. the study of the out-of-the-ordinary. A practitioner of kijyutsu is called a kijyutsushi. I suggest using this as a general term which includes all schools of magic but excludes psionics. Alternatively, if you want wild magic in your campaign, kijyutsu could specifically be wild magic.
houjyutsu: the arts and sciences. The literal meaning is "method skill", and the term is general, not restricted to magical arts and sciences. But it specifically does not exclude them either. I suggest using this as a general term which includes both magic and psionics.
chounouryoku: psionics. The literal meaning is "super-ability power". I suggest that this term should refer to psionic wild talents. Someone with chounouryoku is called a chounouryokusha.
shinreigaku: psionics. The literal meaning is "heart spirit study". I suggest that this term should refer to the studies of a psionicist. The word for "student of psionics" ought to shinreigakusei, but I cannot find this in the dictionary, which suggests that there were not all that many psionicists in legendary Japan. For linguistic reasons, shinreigaku, unlike Western psionics, can affect undead.
haikuhaiku (which probably means reducing casting times).
tejina: conjuring tricks. These may be magical cantrips, as practised by bards and novice wizards, or non-magical sleight of hand, as practised by rogues. A practitioner of tejina is called a tejinashi.
mateki: magic flute. As there are enough of them to warrant a dictionary entry of their own, these as-yet-undefined magical items are presumably comparatively common and not overly powerful.
kakuremino: cloak of invisibility. Japanese cloaks of invisibility are more reliable than elven cloaks - the quality control is better. But the manuals are incomprehensible.
Japanese is rather vague about monsters, and what is monstrous about them. Here are my suggestions.
bakemono: monster. The bake part signifies change, transformation, disguise or deception. I suggest using this as either as a general term for all types of monsters, or as a slightly more specific term for shape-changers.
obake: traditional Japanese ghost. Traditional Japanese ghosts are always female. They have white hair and wear loose-fitting white clothes. They have no legs, and move by floating. I have no idea what is supposed to be so horrifying about them. I suggest that in AD&D terms they are spectres.
onnanibakeru: to change into a woman (group 2 verb). Both actors and monsters do this, so there is also an entry in the rogues section. The silver dragons suggested in the next paragraph certainly do it. However, the Japanese animal associated with illusion and deception is the fox. I suggest that Japanese foxweres are therianthropes (animals assuming the shape of humans), not lycanthropes, that (like AD&D foxwomen) they are always female when in human form, and that (unlike AD&D foxwomen) they can be any chaotic alignment.
sennin: traditional Japanese mountain being. The word is sometimes refers to hermits, sometimes refers to wizards, and sometimes refers to magical fairy creatures resembling sylphs. I suggest that in an AD&D campaign sennin are equivalent to magic-using silver dragons in human or humanoid form.
youkai: monster. Another generic term. Since kai signifies "mysterious" and you has already been deemed to signify enchantment/charm, I suggest using this as a general term for monsters which cast charm spells. If you want a specific monster, it is something like a vampire.
ma: demon or devil. Japanese is particularly vague about fiendish monsters. There are stories in which they keep their promises, so it is possible that ma are of lawful evil alignment. On the other hand, it would not be prudent to assume that this is always the case. I suggest using the term to refer to extra-planar beings of any evil alignment.
tenma: a type of aerial demon. ten here means "heaven". I suggest that any flying demon would do.
oni: yet another sort of demon. Descriptions vary, although horns are often mentioned. I suggest that this refers to a specific monster type unique to Japan. The word is sometimes also applied, as a compliment, to people showing superhuman competence in their chosen profession.
akuma and a,ki also signify fiendish monsters which could be devils or demons. aku and its contraction a, just signify "bad", and seem to me to be redundant. ki is the same word as oni. I suggest that these are not independent monsters but just different words for ma and oni respectively.
kijyo: a female oni. ki is the same word as oni; jyo means "female". The word is sometimes also applied, as a term of abuse, to female magic-users.
yashya: another type of female demon. ya signifies "night" and shya signifies "fork in the road". I suggest that you should come up with a new monster to match the name.
chimi: supposedly, a type of demon found in the mountains. chi signifies "mountain spirits"; mi signifies "charm", as in the previous section. I suggest that you should come up with a new monster to match the name, and that it need not be as demonic as the dictionary suggests. A mountainous equivalent of dryads and nymphs, perhaps. Chaotic, but not necessarily evil, alignment seems likely.
ka,pa: supposedly, a water demon. Since ka signifies "river" and ,pa here signifies "child", I suggest that this is a nereid.
chimimouryo: a collective term for chimi and ka,pa. I suggest that this indicates a similarity between the two.
ashyura: an Asura from Hindu mythology, imported to Japan via the Buddhist connection. In AD&D terms, even minor Asuras are at least as powerful as pit fiends or balors, and they can be of any alignment.
uchuujin: alien. Literally, "person from outer space".
chounouryoku: super-power. In an AD&D setting, chounouryoku would generally refer to psionic wild talents, but since the literal meaning is "super-ability power", it could equally well refer to any weirdo in a colourful costume.
seiyuuki: the Journey to the West, the story of how Buddhist scriptures came from India to China. The star of the show, as everyone knows, is Monkey.
saruthe Monkey, star of the Journey to the West.
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gojyou the five virtues: justice, politeness, wisdom, fidelity and benevolence.
gojyou the five passions: anger, joy, hatred, desire and grief. Note that this is not the same word as gojyou, the five virtues listed in the previous entry. It just sounds similar. The resemblance, as any Zen Buddhist will tell you, is a delusion.
nou: Noh play, a long and boring play which samurai were required to attend in order to demonstrate their powers of endurance.
kabuki: Japanese melodrama. In modern Japan, kabuki is almost, but not quite, as long and boring as nou, all the roles are played by male actors, and only middle-aged women go to see it. However, in legendary times, kabuki was fun. There were special effects, which may or may not have involved magical illusions. There were pretty women on stage, and during the performance they would remove their clothes. Everyone went to see it. Even samurai, who were required by law to watch nou, used to disguise themselves as merchants and go to see kabuki instead.