Let's decipher stylized kanji!

Japanese Language Kanji
1

I hope this isn’t too similar to other topics, but what I was thinking for this thread, is that people post screenshots or photos of Japanese writing (signs, packaging, etc.) that use non-standard fonts or calligraphy/handwriting. My thinking is that native Japanese people are able to read these easily, but we poor Japanese learners are often not. So post a picture and your best attempt at deciphering it. Or if you can’t decipher it, others can try. Could be fun?

Anyway, here’s my first entry:

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my decoding: ひとりで見る夢ゆめは夢でしかなり。しかし誰だれかと共ともに見る夢は現げん実じつだ。

2

Close. It’s ない, not なり.

3

ああ最初から間違いました。But that does make more sense, now that you mention it.

4

You can tell by the left stroke being longer than the right one

5

Okay, how about this one:

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The left bottle is relatively easy, I think.

The right bottle’s bottom kanji looks like 楽. Perhaps the older variant 樂.
The right bottle’s top kanji is a mystery. The closest I could find is 冩.

6

You got it right! http://www.miyaizumi.co.jp/sake/

7

True. I’m terrible at telling right from left. It took me ages to be able to distinguish ち and さ.

8

Thanks! I still don’t see the similarity to 冩. :man_shrugging::woman_shrugging:

9

Seems like in calligraphy it’s written like this: http://www.cidianwang.com/shufa/xie12876.htm
http://hanwen360.com/s-xs/51A9.html

10

That’s a nifty website!

11

I assume that this requirement rules out goshuin calligraphy, then? :stuck_out_tongue:

Still, I run into examples of weird typography all the time, though rather typically, I can’t seem to find any now…

12

(looks up goshuin–it’s the red seal below) Yeah, probably not. image

Also, we should probably stay away from historical texts like this:

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(That’s George Washington in the hat).

13

This is the one that immediately came to mind for me from a mobile game I play.

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I had no idea what it meant at first but apparently it spells out 4 kanji: 新春捜査

14

No, I don’t believe for one second that that’s supposed to be easily readable. I mean, I can see in hindsight what’s going on here, but… no.

15

I honestly thought it was written in Webdings at first.

Some more readable ones that are in stylized fonts but not too bad to distinguish:

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幸せ初めの新年会

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The middle section here is stylized katakana that reads ショコラ
I find it throws my brain for a real loop whenever shapes that are typically angular are made round.

16

I reject everything about round katakana!

17

This is such a sad, frustrating fact lol

18

this thread is so laughably beyond my skill level. i should make a note to myself to check back in a year.

or two years.

19

WOW, that round one is really weird! The loopy one… I can recognize the last two… but round katakana? No… Just no.

Are these all from the same game?

20

They are all from the same game yeah. I feel like I’ve definitely seen some of these elements in other fonts outside of this game but it’s the immediate example that comes to mind to me. Most of the fonts tend to be easily readable but sometimes… Out of curiosity I started scrolling through events from previous years and:

What in the name of all that is holy, why?!
It reads 今宵、アナタと謎解きを


I rather like this one though even though it’s not the easiest to read (the kanji in this aren’t all that common and I’m not sure how many WK covers so it might be a bit tricky but it’s: 浪漫絢爛)

Angular shapes being made round.
Round shapes being made angular.
It’s an abomination.