Was wondering if anyone here knows Japanese calligraphy, mainly how to write "stars" in Japanese. Is this picture saying, "stars"? or something else? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Yes I know "星" is stars "Hoshu" but is not the right way of writing it.
It looks like 㫐 to me. "distant and indistinguishable", like a binary star not resolved with a telescope This is a list of all the unicode characters with the sun radical and 2 additional strokes: http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/Unih...okes=2&useutf8=false&submit=Submit&radical=72
Here is the URL to an online Japanese dictionary: http://jisho.org/words?jap=&eng=star&dict=edict The word for "star" is written: 星
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! This is the calligraphy (Japanese or Chinese take your pick) for the Japanese word 'star' pronounced hoshi. This kanji has a second reading in Japanese 'sai' that does not mean star. Something to bare in mind if you're thinking of a tattoo (for the sake of the gods, if it is a tattoo, do not do the mirror image, gods that annoys me).
Most kanji (the Japanese reading of the Chinese phrase han zi, "Chinese word") have two readings. One is the han reading, which is the original Chinese pronunciation--except that Japanese phonetics have undergone a few shifts over the centuries so many of the han readings are so different from the Chinese readings that they are not always even recognizable. The other is the kun reading, which is the more-or-less equivalent Japanese word. But as you noted, after centuries of evolution, sometimes the Japanese reading has no obvious relationship to the original Chinese word.
guys I really do appreciate all the Chinese and Japanese calligraphy but what I really want to identify is the character in that particular image. If its not a star than what is it? Michael, you mentioned that the meaning is "sai". Is that the calligraphy of the image I posted? What does it mean? And I feel like Rpenner is the closest to the truth, "㫐"
As I understand, the Japanese maintained the On-reading (han reading) while it was actually the Chinese whose language evolved. Basically, Japanese preserved the Chinese On-reading during the times when trade or movement was not allowed (either by Chinese or Japanese restrictions). When the boarders reopened, Chinese had continued to evolve their language whereas the Japanese didn't. Thus, the Japanese just added the additional reading to their list. Hence, today, Chinese still have a single reading, whereas Japanese have multiple readings, each associated with a period in Chinese history plus their Kun reading. Some kanji can have fricken 15 readings :/ I'm not saying this was always the case, but that's how I read their history. Japanese used Old Mandarin (or one of the other 6) in their courts by the aristocrats in the same way French was used by the English and Russians (except Japanese aristocracy could actually still speak formal Japanese). There was a lot of 'formalizing' and maintaining readings as this was seen as a 'formal' language - whereas in China, any idiot could speak it, and make it up too.
