(This is one of the most, if not the most epic moment of the game so watch it at your own risk if you didn’t see it yet and intend to play it later : video link.)
I have two questions about this ; the first one concerns 墓場. Perhaps I didn’t get it right, but I feel like he says はかも for 墓場, instead of はかば ?
The second is about みておけ.
The full kanji version of the word must be : 見て置け. Just to be sure, the meaning of おく after the -て form of a verb is “to do something in advance” ; so here, it’s "look before obeying to the order “退け” " ?
The next question is about some kanji I’ve seen while watching again the first episode of Death Note.
I understand 大学受験, but what’s the meaning of 寄木 ? When I look it up on Jisho, it says that it means “wooden mosaic ; parquetry”. I really don’t understand why it’s here ?
The interpretation of Vanilla’s friend seems the most logical to me, even though I would never have thought about that either. I looked up 寄木 on Google Images and I’ve never seen something like that. So the meaning of the metaphor is “every student is a small piece of mosaic, the box doesn’t fall apart only because every part of it is in harmony with each other” ? If it’s really the meaning of it that’s a pretty cool metaphor.
I asked a Japanese friend regarding the Death Note screenshot, and he said that it’s most likely a commercial for a cram school where you can study for the university test. It’s possibly a modification of 代々木ゼミナール which is a famous cram school, but because it’s an anime, they cannot use the real name, so they modified it a little bit. (The small sign also says “registrations now open” which supports his notion.)
Oh I see, in the episode Light is indeed going to a cram school, I think that’s probably the answer. I loved the idea of Vanilla’s friend but now that I think about it again it seems a little far-fetched, even if it would be a great metaphor.
So correct me if I’m wrong but if this interpretation is correct, 寄木 is basically an 当て字, the meaning of the kanji doesn’t really matter, it’s just to indicate the fictional name of the school (よせぎ) ?
That’s something I have a hard time to understand about Japanese names, let’s take the character Uryû Ishida from Bleach for example : it’s written like this 石田 雨竜. Why isn’t it an ateji if the meaning doesn’t matter, and that it’s just about the pronunciation ? Ateji are only for common names ?
People usually just don’t talk about names like that. It may be technically true by the definition of ateji in the dictionary, but it’s just not something you hear people say.
The meaning did matter, back when they first became names.
It’s the same as English, really - you meet someone named “Bob Stonehouse”, say, and you think nothing of it, because it’s a name. But back in medieval times or something, they were probably “Robert, of the Stone House”, because they were the only family in the village who lived in a stone house, so that was a way to uniquely identify them. Over time, everyone started to live in stone houses, but Robert was still called Stonehouse because that had become his family name.
Ateji, on the other hand, are kanji chosen arbitrarily for their readings only. They were just drawn out of a hat, or whatever. There’s no etymological backstory to them.
Indeed, I didn’t think about that. What I find also difficult with Japanese names is the ambiguity of the kanji, and that the parents can basically choose any kanji for the first name of their child ? Since we’ve been talking about Death Note, Light (らいと) is written with 月, so there is really no way to guess. I wonder if in Japan there are always furigana for people’s names ?
Yes, within reason, but there’s also the same sort of social pressure in Japan against doing that as there is naming someone… like, “Aliviyah” or “Abcde” in English. The government also gets final say in the choice of new baby names - names considered too out-there will be rejected.
Typically, yes. Business cards often have it. When you fill in a form (like an application for a drivers’ licence, for example), there’s always a space for the furigana. It’s also perfectly acceptable to just straight-up ask someone how their name is pronounced.
ライト for 月 is an example of キラキラネーム, and Japanese people kind of cringe at them when it’s not a fictional character.
But no, most of the time people do not have furigana for names (when encountered in the wild) and it’s often impossible to be certain of the reading without asking, even if it’s a normal non-kirakira name.
彩花 could be あやか or さいか, or even いろは with some creativity… You just wouldn’t know at first glance.
