Need a Kanji Translated? Just ask!

Mikawa Ossan · Feb 9, 2007, 07:22

There are many Japanese proficient people here who would be more than happy to help you with kanji questions. What does this character mean? What is the character for such and such?
Ask away!
No question is "too stupid", and we promise to be nice in our replies! (This is a thread to help, so negative comments are not welcome here!)

midori21 · Feb 9, 2007, 13:03

Hi, everybody

I came across a word that makes me confused. Can you guys help me?
1. "正月"　and "元日".
I know that both of them mean New year's. But, I don't know how to use them. When should I use this word?
2. Dictionary (字引 and 辞書）。
Which are the word that usually used? How to use both of them?
Thank you

Mikawa Ossan · Feb 9, 2007, 13:58

正月 is pronounced しょうがつ and it is often preceded with an お . It refers to a period of time, or the New Year's season.

元日 is pronounced がんじつ and it refers to the first day of the year. The last evening/night of the old year is called 大晦日（おおみそか）, and the first morning of the New Year is called 元旦（かんたん） . A lot of people use 元旦 interchangeably with 元日 .

字引 is rarely used these days. I think it is an older term. Use 辞書 instead, and you should be fine.

midori21 · Feb 9, 2007, 14:59

Originally Posted by Mikawa Ossan

正月 is pronounced しょうがつ and it is often preceded with an お . It refers to a period of time, or the New Year's season.
元日 is pronounced がんじつ and it refers to the first day of the year. The last evening/night of the old year is called 大晦日（おおみそか）, and the first morning of the New Year is called 元旦（かんたん） . A lot of people use 元旦 interchangeably with 元日 .
字引 is rarely used these days. I think it is an older term. Use 辞書 instead, and you should be fine.

Thank you very much for the good explanation

Im really appreciated it a lot

dibelco · Apr 4, 2007, 10:39

Hi! I went to an air show recently and they had a few World War II era Japanese planes there. There were kanji painted on the fuselage of one of the planes that I took a picture of and I was wondering if anyone could identify them (picture at the URL below). I've had no luck myself... Thank you very much!

img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/dibelco/kanji.jpg

undrentide · Apr 4, 2007, 11:00

Originally Posted by dibelco

Hi! I went to an air show recently and they had a few World War II era Japanese planes there. There were kanji painted on the fuselage of one of the planes that I took a picture of and I was wondering if anyone could identify them (picture at the URL below). I've had no luck myself... Thank you very much!
img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/dibelco/kanji.jpg

Hmm, they look like something added by someone who do not know kanji...
They look like 鷲 (washi - meaning eagle) and 海 (umi/kai - meaning sea) but both are incorrect.

The left top part of washi and left part (radical which signify water) are wrong. I'm attaching the images of correct ones, you can see the difference.

edit: looking at the image you posted again, the whole kanji are disfigured and wrong, not just the parts I mentioned above...

dibelco · Apr 4, 2007, 13:03

Originally Posted by undrentide

Hmm, they look like something added by someone who do not know kanji...
They look like 鷲 (washi - meaning eagle) and 海 (umi/kai - meaning sea) but both are incorrect.
The left top part of washi and left part (radical which signify water) are wrong. I'm attaching the images of correct ones, you can see the difference.
edit: looking at the image you posted again, the whole kanji are disfigured and wrong, not just the parts I mentioned above...

Ah, yes. I thought that maybe whoever painted those didn't know what they were doing. I believe the plane was a replica, afterall. I thought maybe I was missing something, but I'm glad to know that my suspicions were correct and that I'm not a complete idiot. Thanks very much for helping me out!

yukio_michael · Apr 4, 2007, 13:05

Thankyou Mikawa OssanSAN ;) for this much needed sticky. Ja~....

**Glenn** · Apr 4, 2007, 16:18

Originally Posted by undrentide

Hmm, they look like something added by someone who do not know kanji...
They look like 鷲 (washi - meaning eagle) and 海 (umi/kai - meaning sea) but both are incorrect.

The left top part of washi and left part (radical which signify water) are wrong. I'm attaching the images of correct ones, you can see the difference.

edit: looking at the image you posted again, the whole kanji are disfigured and wrong, not just the parts I mentioned above...

But what on earth would that mean? "Eagle sea," eh? Or maybe it's supposed to be 縦書き, and it would then be "sea eagle," which makes slightly more sense. Other than that, maybe a name?

undrentide · Apr 4, 2007, 16:39

Originally Posted by Glenn

But what on earth would that mean? "Eagle sea," eh? Or maybe it's supposed to be 縦書き, and it would then be "sea eagle," which makes slightly more sense. Other than that, maybe a name?

Honestly, I have no idea. Could be either sea eagle or eagle sea, but if it was written someone who don't have much knowledge about kanji or Japanese language, then it is very much likely that it's a made-up name for the plane...

**Uncle Frank** · Apr 8, 2007, 23:39

He has a ring with a Kanji symbol on it. We couldn't seem to get a good picture of it so he drew it out. He's wondering if it has a meaning or if it is just a meaningless design. Thanks for the help !!

Uncle Frank

**epigene** · Apr 9, 2007, 00:29

Hi Frank!

It looks like the kanji

勇

Pronounced "yuu" - similar to the English word "you" - and meaning "courage."

**Uncle Frank** · Apr 9, 2007, 00:39

Poor guy has been waiting all week to find out. Thanks again!

Uncle Frank

Wladimir · Apr 14, 2007, 16:57

I need help with some kanji: I can't read it and also I can't find it into my dictionary and my kanji stroke program

Please write onyomi and kunyomi...
ありがとうごやいます

**Glenn** · Apr 14, 2007, 17:30

タイ、ま・つ

It means "wait."

Wladimir · Apr 17, 2007, 19:21

Thank you so much, you helped me a lot!

pkeets · Apr 18, 2007, 13:41

Originally Posted by Mikawa Ossan

There are many Japanese proficient people here who would be more than happy to help you with kanji questions. What does this character mean? What is the character for such and such?
Ask away!
No question is "too stupid", and we promise to be nice in our replies! (This is a thread to help, so negative comments are not welcome here!)

Hi, I've tried to add a bit of kanji to a Wikipedia article and it was really hard to find copyable script to do it. Could I get you to check and see if I've found the right character?

Well, dang. I get an error message that says I can't post URLS. Please look up "Yoshukai International" in Wikipedia.org and compare to the script at Yoshuaki.org. Many thanks!

undrentide · Apr 18, 2007, 13:49

Originally Posted by pkeets

Hi, I've tried to add a bit of kanji to a Wikipedia article and it was really hard to find copyable script to do it. Could I get you to check and see if I've found the right character?

Well, dang. I get an error message that says I can't post URLS. Please look up "Yoshukai International" in Wikipedia.org and compare to the script at Yoshuaki.org. Many thanks!

余秀会 is wrong.
According to http://www.yoshukai.org/Instructors.htm , it should be
養秀会
I think its romanization is rather misleading, its actual pronunciation is yo-shu-kai (o and u are long).

krs1 · Apr 19, 2007, 04:06

Hi,
I have 2 Japanese Friends and would like to learn how to write their names in Japanese?
The names are: - Tomoko & Chiaki
--
Thanks

JimmySeal · Apr 19, 2007, 10:30

Most Japanese names have many (sometimes as many as 10) possible spellings, while a certain person will only have one specific spelling for their name (that means that you can't just write any one of them). So at best we can only give you several guesses about how their names might be spelled.

But if you would like to write their names in hiragana, here you go:
ともこ - Tomoko
ちあき - Chiaki

krs1 · Apr 19, 2007, 16:14

Thanks. I was going to write one of the names on a birthday card but I'd better check first.

JimmySeal · Apr 19, 2007, 17:46

Ok. Even if you don't wanna double check how to write their names in kanji, writing their name in hiragana or katakana is perfectly normal. Here's what they look like in katakana:

トモコ - Tomoko
チアキ - Chiaki

pkeets · Apr 20, 2007, 12:24

Hi, everybody. It's me with the Wikipedia article on Yoshukai International again. I have a list of kata here that I'd like to have kanji translations for. I can find many of these online, but they're all jpgs and not copyable into script. Could I get some help? Again, I'd post some links if I could, but I notice Kyokushin karate schools have some of these posted. I've double starred the very traditional ones, but I'd like to have the ones with a single star, also. Many thanks!

1. Nijusichi - 27 Movements
2. Zenshinkotai *
3. H-Forms 1 - 4 (Heian Kihons) 平安
4. Shihohai *
5. Gekisai **
6. Tai Ho Jitsu 1 - 5
7. Seisan **
8. Nisei Shi (may be mis-spelled?) *
9. Rohai Sho **
10. Rohai Dai **
11. Sochin 壯鎭
12. Tenshin **
13. Mugen *
14. Bassai 披塞
15. Sanchin 三戰
16. Chinto **
17. Kusanku **
18. Sanshiryu *
19. Ryusan *
20. Tensho **

undrentide · Apr 20, 2007, 12:41

Can't you ask 養秀会? Not that I want to discourage you here, but I realized that many terms used for martial arts are very special and not recognizable for those who don't know it (like me), and since there are many kanji who have the same pronunciaion though very different in meaning it is easy to pick the wrong kanji.
Wikipedia is where so many people look for information, I'm sure you want to make the information (including kanji) as accurate as possible...

(If you can indicate the webpage which shows the word in jpg or gif images then it's adifferent story... you cannot post the full URL until the number of your posts reaches the certain number, but you can mention URLs without http:// part for example...)

pkeets · Apr 20, 2007, 13:00

Originally Posted by undrentide

Can't you ask 養秀会? Not that I want to discourage you here, but I realized that many terms used for martial arts are very special and not recognizable for those who don't know it (like me), and since there are many kanji who have the same pronunciaion though very different in meaning it is easy to pick the wrong kanji.
Wikipedia is where so many people look for information, I'm sure you want to make the information (including kanji) as accurate as possible...

I know what the problems are. But again, what you generally get from a request is the script in jpg form. I think it would be copyrighted and not acceptable to upload to Wikipedia, so I need font type characters. I was thinking people here would have kanji characters they can type for me so I can copy them to Wikipedia. It worked very well for the Yoshukai characters above.

[QUOTE)(If you can indicate the webpage which shows the word in jpg or gif images then it's adifferent story... you cannot post the full URL until the number of your posts reaches the certain number, but you can mention URLs [/QUOTE]

Okay, here's Gekisai and Tensho: uskyokushin.com/kata.htm Since I see it there, please do Seienchin for me, too.

Here's Seisan, Chinto and Kusanku: msisshinryu.com/articles/swift/kata.shtml

Found a good reference here that has most of the list: pages.infinit.net/chitoryu/karate/kar_prog.html

Feb 9, 2007, 07:22	#1
Mikawa Ossan 一寸先は光 Join Date: Sep 17, 2005 Location: 中西部 Posts: 3,520 Blog Entries: 51	Need a Kanji Translated? Just ask! There are many Japanese proficient people here who would be more than happy to help you with kanji questions. What does this character mean? What is the character for such and such? Ask away! No question is "too stupid", and we promise to be nice in our replies! (This is a thread to help, so negative comments are not welcome here!) __________________ Chukyo Dai Chukyo bansai!!!! Last edited by jeisan; Mar 14, 2007 at 12:21.

Feb 9, 2007, 13:03	#2
midori21 I love language Join Date: Oct 25, 2006 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 15	Hi, everybody I came across a word that makes me confused. Can you guys help me? 1. "正月"　and "元日". I know that both of them mean New year's. But, I don't know how to use them. When should I use this word? 2. Dictionary (字引 and 辞書）。 Which are the word that usually used? How to use both of them? Thank you __________________ 頑張って I love language～ Come visit my Chinese language's forum :- [url]http://learnchinese.informe.com/url] Last edited by jeisan; Mar 14, 2007 at 12:23. Reason: removed false title

Feb 9, 2007, 14:59	#4
midori21 I love language Join Date: Oct 25, 2006 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 15	Originally Posted by Mikawa Ossan 正月 is pronounced しょうがつ and it is often preceded with an お . It refers to a period of time, or the New Year's season. 元日 is pronounced がんじつ and it refers to the first day of the year. The last evening/night of the old year is called 大晦日（おおみそか）, and the first morning of the New Year is called 元旦（かんたん） . A lot of people use 元旦 interchangeably with 元日 . 字引 is rarely used these days. I think it is an older term. Use 辞書 instead, and you should be fine. Thank you very much for the good explanation Im really appreciated it a lot

Apr 4, 2007, 13:03	#7
dibelco Junior Member Join Date: Apr 4, 2007 Posts: 2	Originally Posted by undrentide Hmm, they look like something added by someone who do not know kanji... They look like 鷲 (washi - meaning eagle) and 海 (umi/kai - meaning sea) but both are incorrect. The left top part of washi and left part (radical which signify water) are wrong. I'm attaching the images of correct ones, you can see the difference. edit: looking at the image you posted again, the whole kanji are disfigured and wrong, not just the parts I mentioned above... Ah, yes. I thought that maybe whoever painted those didn't know what they were doing. I believe the plane was a replica, afterall. I thought maybe I was missing something, but I'm glad to know that my suspicions were correct and that I'm not a complete idiot. Thanks very much for helping me out!

Apr 4, 2007, 13:05	#8
yukio_michael Koyaniskatsi Join Date: Mar 8, 2005 Location: Pittsburgh, Penn. Age: 38 Posts: 1,990	Thankyou Mikawa OssanSAN ;) for this much needed sticky. Ja~.... __________________ (flickr: pgh, japan & korea, santa cruz ) (blog: eyesonthewires) (j-rock) Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. -Eric Hoffer.

Feb 9, 2007, 13:58	#3
Mikawa Ossan 一寸先は光 Join Date: Sep 17, 2005 Location: 中西部 Posts: 3,520 Blog Entries: 51	正月 is pronounced しょうがつ and it is often preceded with an お . It refers to a period of time, or the New Year's season. 元日 is pronounced がんじつ and it refers to the first day of the year. The last evening/night of the old year is called 大晦日（おおみそか）, and the first morning of the New Year is called 元旦（かんたん） . A lot of people use 元旦 interchangeably with 元日 . 字引 is rarely used these days. I think it is an older term. Use 辞書 instead, and you should be fine.

Apr 4, 2007, 10:39	#5
dibelco Junior Member Join Date: Apr 4, 2007 Posts: 2	Hi! I went to an air show recently and they had a few World War II era Japanese planes there. There were kanji painted on the fuselage of one of the planes that I took a picture of and I was wondering if anyone could identify them (picture at the URL below). I've had no luck myself... Thank you very much! img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/dibelco/kanji.jpg

Apr 4, 2007, 16:18	#9
Glenn 考え中 Join Date: Jan 8, 2004 Posts: 5,544	Originally Posted by undrentide Hmm, they look like something added by someone who do not know kanji... They look like 鷲 (washi - meaning eagle) and 海 (umi/kai - meaning sea) but both are incorrect. The left top part of washi and left part (radical which signify water) are wrong. I'm attaching the images of correct ones, you can see the difference. edit: looking at the image you posted again, the whole kanji are disfigured and wrong, not just the parts I mentioned above... But what on earth would that mean? "Eagle sea," eh? Or maybe it's supposed to be 縦書き, and it would then be "sea eagle," which makes slightly more sense. Other than that, maybe a name? __________________ Avoid Mojibake! -- 文字化けを避ける！ Dictionary at Goo - English-Japanese, Japanese-English, Japanese Language Teach Yourself Japanese and Teach Yourself Japanese Message Board Jim Breen's online dictionary and kanji lookup

Apr 4, 2007, 16:39	#10
undrentide japáｎ vagyok Join Date: Jan 18, 2006 Location: Nowhere - Now here Posts: 2,400 Blog Entries: 3	Originally Posted by Glenn But what on earth would that mean? "Eagle sea," eh? Or maybe it's supposed to be 縦書き, and it would then be "sea eagle," which makes slightly more sense. Other than that, maybe a name? Honestly, I have no idea. Could be either sea eagle or eagle sea, but if it was written someone who don't have much knowledge about kanji or Japanese language, then it is very much likely that it's a made-up name for the plane...

Apr 8, 2007, 23:39	#11
Uncle Frank You SPAM/We BAN ! Join Date: May 21, 2003 Location: State of Maine Age: 59 Posts: 6,715	For a new member, spudsss . He has a ring with a Kanji symbol on it. We couldn't seem to get a good picture of it so he drew it out. He's wondering if it has a meaning or if it is just a meaningless design. Thanks for the help !! Uncle Frank __________________ TAKE WHAT I SAY WITH A GRAIN OF SUGAR !! I USED TO BE FUNNY, BUT MY WIFE HAD ME NEUTERED! Last edited by Uncle Frank; Apr 21, 2007 at 08:03.

Apr 9, 2007, 00:29	#12
epigene 不束者です Join Date: Nov 10, 2004 Location: 都下 Posts: 3,500 Blog Entries: 22	Hi Frank! It looks like the kanji 勇 Pronounced "yuu" - similar to the English word "you" - and meaning "courage." __________________ ✄ฺ--------- ｷ ---- ﾘ ---- ﾄ ---- ﾚ ---- ﾏ ---- ｾ ---- ﾝ --------

Apr 9, 2007, 00:39	#13
Uncle Frank You SPAM/We BAN ! Join Date: May 21, 2003 Location: State of Maine Age: 59 Posts: 6,715	Thank you Epigene, from Spudsss and I ! Poor guy has been waiting all week to find out. Thanks again! Uncle Frank

Apr 14, 2007, 17:30	#15
Glenn 考え中 Join Date: Jan 8, 2004 Posts: 5,544	タイ、ま・つ It means "wait."

Apr 17, 2007, 19:21	#16
Wladimir Regular Member Join Date: Mar 24, 2007 Posts: 31	Thank you so much, you helped me a lot!

Apr 18, 2007, 13:41	#17
pkeets Junior Member Join Date: Apr 18, 2007 Posts: 9	Need Help with Kanji Originally Posted by Mikawa Ossan There are many Japanese proficient people here who would be more than happy to help you with kanji questions. What does this character mean? What is the character for such and such? Ask away! No question is "too stupid", and we promise to be nice in our replies! (This is a thread to help, so negative comments are not welcome here!) Hi, I've tried to add a bit of kanji to a Wikipedia article and it was really hard to find copyable script to do it. Could I get you to check and see if I've found the right character? Well, dang. I get an error message that says I can't post URLS. Please look up "Yoshukai International" in Wikipedia.org and compare to the script at Yoshuaki.org. Many thanks!

Apr 18, 2007, 13:49	#18
undrentide japáｎ vagyok Join Date: Jan 18, 2006 Location: Nowhere - Now here Posts: 2,400 Blog Entries: 3	Originally Posted by pkeets Hi, I've tried to add a bit of kanji to a Wikipedia article and it was really hard to find copyable script to do it. Could I get you to check and see if I've found the right character? Well, dang. I get an error message that says I can't post URLS. Please look up "Yoshukai International" in Wikipedia.org and compare to the script at Yoshuaki.org. Many thanks! 余秀会 is wrong. According to http://www.yoshukai.org/Instructors.htm , it should be 養秀会 I think its romanization is rather misleading, its actual pronunciation is yo-shu-kai (o and u are long).

Apr 19, 2007, 04:06	#19
krs1 Junior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2007 Location: Sheffield Age: 33 Posts: 14	Hi, I have 2 Japanese Friends and would like to learn how to write their names in Japanese? The names are: - Tomoko & Chiaki -- Thanks

Apr 19, 2007, 10:30	#20
JimmySeal Tubthumper Join Date: Mar 5, 2006 Location: Japan Age: 27 Posts: 1,301	Most Japanese names have many (sometimes as many as 10) possible spellings, while a certain person will only have one specific spelling for their name (that means that you can't just write any one of them). So at best we can only give you several guesses about how their names might be spelled. But if you would like to write their names in hiragana, here you go: ともこ - Tomoko ちあき - Chiaki

Apr 19, 2007, 16:14	#21
krs1 Junior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2007 Location: Sheffield Age: 33 Posts: 14	Thanks. I was going to write one of the names on a birthday card but I'd better check first.

Apr 19, 2007, 17:46	#22
JimmySeal Tubthumper Join Date: Mar 5, 2006 Location: Japan Age: 27 Posts: 1,301	Ok. Even if you don't wanna double check how to write their names in kanji, writing their name in hiragana or katakana is perfectly normal. Here's what they look like in katakana: トモコ - Tomoko チアキ - Chiaki

Apr 20, 2007, 12:24	#23
pkeets Junior Member Join Date: Apr 18, 2007 Posts: 9	Hi, everybody. It's me with the Wikipedia article on Yoshukai International again. I have a list of kata here that I'd like to have kanji translations for. I can find many of these online, but they're all jpgs and not copyable into script. Could I get some help? Again, I'd post some links if I could, but I notice Kyokushin karate schools have some of these posted. I've double starred the very traditional ones, but I'd like to have the ones with a single star, also. Many thanks! 1. Nijusichi - 27 Movements 2. Zenshinkotai * 3. H-Forms 1 - 4 (Heian Kihons) 平安 4. Shihohai * 5. Gekisai 6. Tai Ho Jitsu 1 - 5 7. Seisan 8. Nisei Shi (may be mis-spelled?) * 9. Rohai Sho 10. Rohai Dai 11. Sochin 壯鎭 12. Tenshin ** 13. Mugen * 14. Bassai 披塞 15. Sanchin 三戰 16. Chinto 17. Kusanku 18. Sanshiryu * 19. Ryusan * 20. Tensho **

Apr 20, 2007, 12:41	#24
undrentide japáｎ vagyok Join Date: Jan 18, 2006 Location: Nowhere - Now here Posts: 2,400 Blog Entries: 3	Can't you ask 養秀会? Not that I want to discourage you here, but I realized that many terms used for martial arts are very special and not recognizable for those who don't know it (like me), and since there are many kanji who have the same pronunciaion though very different in meaning it is easy to pick the wrong kanji. Wikipedia is where so many people look for information, I'm sure you want to make the information (including kanji) as accurate as possible... (If you can indicate the webpage which shows the word in jpg or gif images then it's adifferent story... you cannot post the full URL until the number of your posts reaches the certain number, but you can mention URLs without http:// part for example...)

Apr 20, 2007, 13:00	#25
pkeets Junior Member Join Date: Apr 18, 2007 Posts: 9	Originally Posted by undrentide Can't you ask 養秀会? Not that I want to discourage you here, but I realized that many terms used for martial arts are very special and not recognizable for those who don't know it (like me), and since there are many kanji who have the same pronunciaion though very different in meaning it is easy to pick the wrong kanji. Wikipedia is where so many people look for information, I'm sure you want to make the information (including kanji) as accurate as possible... I know what the problems are. But again, what you generally get from a request is the script in jpg form. I think it would be copyrighted and not acceptable to upload to Wikipedia, so I need font type characters. I was thinking people here would have kanji characters they can type for me so I can copy them to Wikipedia. It worked very well for the Yoshukai characters above. [QUOTE)(If you can indicate the webpage which shows the word in jpg or gif images then it's adifferent story... you cannot post the full URL until the number of your posts reaches the certain number, but you can mention URLs [/QUOTE] Okay, here's Gekisai and Tensho: uskyokushin.com/kata.htm Since I see it there, please do Seienchin for me, too. Here's Seisan, Chinto and Kusanku: msisshinryu.com/articles/swift/kata.shtml Found a good reference here that has most of the list: pages.infinit.net/chitoryu/karate/kar_prog.html

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