I usually do some little typesetting projects in the wintertime, so I thought that I would make these into a book. For now, I have put all of the yoji in the the other thread into a PDF format. Ultimately, they will be sorted and added to.
When it is all finished, it will be produced in a format that can be folded and stapled into a little booklet.
I have already been messing with this for some time. I made code for automatically inserting blank pages, and I struggled once again with rotating “ichis”.
The page format looks like this:
You can see there that I still have work to do.
If anyone would like to write more 四字熟語 about Wanikani, do so down below!
I meant to put an introduction to yojijukugo up top.
They are one of the most wonderful things about the Japanese language. Literally they “four character idiomatic expressions.” Four characters packed with meaning. Often they reference folk parables. To me, they are almost like Haiku.
I have been obsessed with books and bookbinding since I was a child. I just love how the pages of a book are folded up into a signature are cut and bound. I love the puzzle of where the pages are placed and how they are oriented so they come out as a book.
Yes yes it’s such a thoughtful and delicate craft! I love watching people make them because I’m not very good at doing it myself hahah
Have you made lots? Have you made ones with fancy covers and things and pretty colours and ooo I’m excited
You just need to write a few yojijukugo, and they can be added to the book. All you need to bind is a needle and thread and glue for the end papers.
If you spend a little time reading yoji, you can get a feel for the common patterns and sounds. Then you can write them!
The thing is that is kanji based, not Japanese based. So think of a thing you want to say, and look up some kanji that relate to it, then play with the 音読み. There is no right and wrong. Pure poetry.
I really have sunk three days into getting the “ichis” rotated in that PDF. In Japanese, “一” gets rotated in vertical text. Every new document is a struggle.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but could you just type | and pretend it’s an ichi?
Orr… rotate the ichi in a different program, save it as a picture, and copy the picture in? These might not be solutions but they’re how my dumb bum would do it
You entirely misunderestimate the purity of my stubbornness.
Part of the goal is to make a reproducible system, where you just plunk in 四字熟語 and a book comes out the other end. I actually have the process down now, but I am not entirely satisfied with the spacing of the kanji, and how the ichis turned out, encroaching on the space of other kanji.
