Black Tortoise

Black Tortoise
The Black Tortoise depicted on a Chinese tile
Chinese name
Chinese	玄武
Literal meaning	Mysterious ~ Dark ~ Black Warrior
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization yun4 mou5 Southern Min Hokkien POJ gôan-bú
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Huyền Vũ
Chữ Hán	玄武
Korean name
Hangul	현무
Hanja	玄武
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Hyeon-mu
Japanese name
Kanji	玄武
Hiragana	げんぶ
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Genbu Kunrei-shiki Genbu

Black Warrior of the North
A copper Black Tortoise from the Yongle era of the Ming dynasty (early 15th century)
Chinese	北方玄武
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Běifāng Xuánwǔ

The Black Tortoise is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is usually depicted as a tortoise intertwined with a snake.^[1] The character '武' can mean 'martial' or 'warrior.' The two characters 玄 and 武 do not have any literal meaning of tortoise and snake. But both tortoise and snake are known to hibernate during winter. The image of intertwined tortoise and snake likely symbolizes a state of inner struggle^{[citation needed]} or a state of hibernation, and thus implies the season of winter. So the English translation Black ~ Dark ~ Mysterious Warrior^[a] is a more faithful translation.^[4][5]

It represents the north and the winter season, thus it is sometimes called Black Warrior of the North (Chinese: 北方玄武; pinyin: Běifāng Xuánwǔ).

In Japan, the characters 玄武 are pronounced as Genbu. It is said to protect Kyoto on the north side, being one of the four guardian spirits that protect the city. It is represented by the Kenkun Shrine, which is located on top of Mt Funaoka in Kyoto.

An important Taoist priest also has 玄武 Xuanwu as his clergy name. He is sometimes (as in Journey to the West) portrayed in the company of a turtle and a snake.

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