so I went to this japanese restaurant called “waraji” and it was great, right? but what can’t stop bugging me are these kanji on the little mint i got.
和樂味
or at least that’s what it looks like to me.
peace and japanese style, reading わ. makes sense.
old version of 楽, meaning fun, ease, or comfort. reading らく. what?
taste or flavor. reading み, kunyomi あじ. why would it use the kunyomi in the middle?
my questions are
a) why would they use the old version of 楽
b) why did the reading get shortened to ら and not らく
c) why did 味 use the kunyomi
d) what is this supposed to mean? is it a real word?
e) does this restaurant know what they’re doing?
it’s not a word, it’s a name. they probably try to invoke these kanji meanings, and 楽 in old style means “fun old style” (actually, it doesn’t mean anything really).
I wonder if it’s like a semi-pun on ‘smiling taste’ or ‘happy taste’
わらあじ
笑（い）味
using 和 establishes that it’s Japanese food/food that’s comforting to Japanese people
and 楽 again is related to fun/ease
So it’s not a huge stretch for me to see those two kanji being used visually for わら(い) as in 笑い so then together with 味/あじ you get the multi layered meaning of japanese food that will make you smile/put you at ease or whatever.
