基本kihon きほん

At the suggestion of my buyu friend Darran Hight, I've decided to start off with the kanji for kihon 基本 (in hiragana きほん ).  This should be fun.
基 ki
Man there are alot of kanji that can be pronounced ki. The following graphic shows the stroke order for this kanji:

The kanji information used to make the above graphics comes from the KanjiVG project. The kanji data is copyright (C) Ulrich Apel 2009 and is used under the terms of a Creative Commons licence. Please see the project page for more details.

The last three strokes form the earth 土 radical. The on'yomi (sino-japanese, or chinese if you will) reading for 基 is "ki" キ.  The kun'yomi (native Japanese) pronunciation is "moto" もと. 

This kanji 基 means "foundation, base, or basis".  When used in compounds it usually retains its meaning of foundation, basis, or base.  For example 沖縄の米軍基地 means "the U.S. base in Okinawa", or を基にして means "on the basis of".  基石 means "cornerstone".

本 hon
This graphic shows the stroke order for 本


 The kanji data is copyright (C) Ulrich Apel 2009-2010 and is used under the terms of a Creative Commons licence.

If you take away the last stroke you are left with the radical for tree 木.  The on'yomi reading is "hon" ホン.  Believe it or not, the kun'yomi reading is the same as 基, "moto" もと.

This kanji 本 means "book, volume, or script", as well as "root, or source".  Whether it means "book" or "root" depends on what kanji it is compounded with or the context in which it is used.  For instance, 本棚 means "bookshelf" or "bookcase".  日本 (nippon, how the Japanese refer to their country Japan) means "root of the sun", hence the nickname "land of the rising sun".  Remember the novel "Shogun" (or the 80's miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Mifune Toshiro)?  In it John Blackthorne (anjinsan あんじんさん) becomes a hatamoto, a personal retainer to the shogun. Well, the "moto" of hatamoto 旗本 is 本.  Also in "Shogun" Anjinsan asks Marikosan if what she is saying is the truth, or the "honto" (honto desu ka?).  The kanji used for that word is 本当.

基本 kihon
So, as a compound, these kanji mean "foundation, basics, basis, or fundamentals".  In the Bujinkan, we tend to think of kihon 基本 as the fundamental principles or basic movements of the art.  These are the things taught to beginners.  It's probably safe to say our kihon 基本 includes kamae 構, ukemi gata  受身型, and the kihon happo 基本八法.  Kihon 基本 is really any principle or movement in the art that can serve as a foundation on which we can build our taijutsu.  Or it can serve as the root from which further insight and understanding can grow and bear fruit. We all know a building cannot weather the storm without a strong foundation, nor can a tree withstand the blast without strong roots. 
It is possible for us to lose sight of how important kihon 基本 is in our quest to ever evolve our taijutsu, because, let's face it: we all wanna be like Soke. He's a genius; who wouldn't want to emulate his movements. What we should emulate is his process, which began with kihon 基本.  To nourish a tree you don't water its branches, you water its roots.  If I want to develop better randori or henka ability, increase my capacity for more complex waza execution, or ,simply put, have freakin' awesome taijutsu, I must first make sure that my most basic and fundamental movements are as close to the root as possible.  If I do that, then whatever blossoms from my movement will come naturally.