Let's decipher stylized kanji!

Indeed. I asked my wife if she could read these (the manga/game ones) and while she thought they were crazy, she could read them all except for the last one (浪漫絢爛), which to be fair is insane.

19 Likes

They’re all rather bizarre but it’s interesting that they’re fairly legible to her. I didn’t have any problems reading the example in the OP but with some of these I get totally lost.

1 Like

GGZ_1333_m

18 Likes

4 Likes

和み地蔵 長谷寺 Hasedera Temple 鎌倉 Kamakura

3 Likes

This is a fun game. I have a lot of photos of Sake bottles. Theres some great it often indeciferable kanji on many of them.

7 Likes

It says “Sake”.



Somewhere.

34 Likes

That one is a little easier because the name is printed just to the left of the calligraphy.

西條鶴 ー さいじょうつる ー Saijo Crane

6 Likes

So you like round kanji? Then take a look at this Chinese website.

(It’s not that difficult to recognize but it’s a neat concept imo.)

Edit: The mobile website looks different, you need to open it on a desktop.

Oh, I’ve been to Hase-dera. Even took a picture of that little guy.

For bonus reading fun, here’s the goshuin I got from there. :slightly_smiling_face:

I want to try visiting the original Hase-dera in Nara, now…

7 Likes

It’s beautiful. I went there once a long time ago and keep meaning to go back but somehow haven’t managed yet. 是非行ってください。

@majime Thanks, I learned a new word: 和む. I like the way the Jizo’s round features are mirrored in the writing.

7 Likes

Thanks to a Japanese friend, who happens to be a tour guide, my intro to Kamakura was captivating…it was my first opportunity to learn about 写経 and 地蔵 at 長谷寺!

3 Likes

stylized kanji/kana always depresses me… I can’t imagine being able to read these easily without 10+ years of immersion. just slight font changes already throw me off hard. I really hope it becomes manageable when I at some point learn actually writing those. but currently my goal is reading/typing/speaking only.

10 Likes

I’m hoping to keep these in the realm of the possible for non-natives since most of us are not so advanced that we can even instantly read most Japanese writing in the wild. Anyway, here’s a semi-random screen grab from Google street view in Kobe.

The part on the right is fairly easy (once you understand that it’s written right-to-left: お好み焼).

And the bit on the left is a somewhat more challenging name that I think is 花美 (はなみ or はなび Actually, it’s written elsewhere on the storefront in romaji as hanabisi).

3 Likes

Aye. Right-to-left signboards still throw me on occasion (though you can often spot them when they seem to start with 屋 or 寺 or whatever, or - as in this case - end with お).

4 Likes


I have been looking at this for the last four years at the dojo and I have no clue what it means. I suppose the last kanji is 待 (or 持). But the rest I can’t even guess.

4 Likes

It possibly could be 歳月人を待たず (= time waits for no one) but written somehow extra poetically and calligraphic, but I couldn’t say for certain.

5 Likes

It seems to be a 四字熟語 from that proverb: 歳月不待 But I can’t guess at the meaning of the く looking, fifth character.

5 Likes

Maybe it’s a very minimalistic signature

Bingo ! I asked a native person and they say it probably come from the saying 歳月人を待たず (usually written in kanji 歳月人待不 ), but somehow here written 歳月不待人, so they were wondering if it could be the original, the classical chinese version of the saying.

10 Likes