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Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Printable Version

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Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Whatsifsowhatsit - 2009-06-27

First of all, my apologies if this is a double thread - I didn't find anything.

I just thought it would be a fun idea to talk about which kanji are the pretty ones Tongue I wonder if other people would be attracted to the same kanji that I am.
Bear in mind I don't have finished RtK1 (I'm in the 1400s atm), so the prettiest kanji might be yet to come.

So far, I really like:
158 寺 "Buddhist temple"
1011 傾 "Lean" (I like the way you can tuck the "spoon" primitive a bit in the "person" one)
1256 者 "Someone" (especially as it appears as parts of other kanji... it's just elegant)
1427 酉 "Sign of the bird"

I guess we might as well talk about the ugly kanji as well Smile here's some of the ones I don't like:
106 少 "Few" (this one's not so bad actually, just a little ugly)
213 暦 "Calendar" (just looks like a creepy clown's face to me)

Meh, I gotta go now... I'll add others later if I come across them again.

Thankfully, in general I think kanji are very pretty, btw.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Evil_Dragon - 2009-06-27

I find anything that has 言 on the bottom to be ugly as hell. 警　誉　誓. Enough already!

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Burritolingus - 2009-06-27

麗 will always look hilarious and hideous to me, which is a little ironic considering its meaning. Can you visualize the eyebrows, eyes, nose and gritted teeth? Dang, son, that's one fugly kanji.

On the other end of spectrum, I'm a big fan of 夢 - just looks so elegant to me.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Aijin - 2009-06-27

Burritolingus Wrote:麗 will always look hilarious and hideous to me, which is a little ironic considering its meaning. Can you visualize the eyebrows, eyes, nose and gritted teeth? Dang, son, that's one fugly kanji.

On the other end of spectrum, I'm a big fan of 夢 - just looks so elegant to me.
Hah! An American student saw me wrote 麗 and told me that it looked like a hobo's face. I can never look at that character the same way again...

夢 is also one of my favorites Smile

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Burritolingus - 2009-06-27

Aijin Wrote:Hah! An American student saw me wrote 麗 and told me that it looked like a hobo's face. I can never look at that character the same way again...
Haha, it does look like a hobo! http://ryouko.imsb.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?162151_%CE%EF

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - bflatnine - 2009-06-27

I also like 夢, and I like the 鬥 primitive. Little different from 門. A funny one is 囧, which gets used a lot as a Sad smiley. I've always thought 笑 kinda looked like the face of a laughing cat.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - nest0r - 2009-06-27

Your 母 is pretty ugly.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Wally - 2009-06-27

bflatnine Wrote:I also like 夢, and I like the 鬥 primitive. Little different from 門. A funny one is 囧, which gets used a lot as a Sad smiley. I've always thought 笑 kinda looked like the face of a laughing cat.
I have *never*, *ever* seen a cat laugh. Smile

Several thousand years ago the Egyptians thought they were gods -- because the reflection of fire in a cat's eyes was thought to reveal where the sun god went at night.

The cats have never forgotten.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - QuackingShoe - 2009-06-28

nest0r Wrote:Your 母 is pretty ugly.
Bahahaha

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - magamo - 2009-06-28

Burritolingus Wrote:
Aijin Wrote:Hah! An American student saw me wrote 麗 and told me that it looked like a hobo's face. I can never look at that character the same way again...
Haha, it does look like a hobo! http://ryouko.imsb.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?162151_%CE%EF
Can't unsee it.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Machine_Gun_Cat - 2009-06-28

I love the Beans/table primitive and I love the "sow" primitive
My favourite Kanji at the moment are 遠、激　and　疑　Is really fun to write for some reason

As for ugly ones
忙ーWhat the *****
毎ーIs a pain in　The ass
And　赤　I just don't like it, never have

AND simplified chines- what the *****, I know it isn't particularly culturally sensitive to say so but oh my god could they mutilate the traditional Hanzhi worse if they were trying
I especially detest
gate:門＝门
Piggy bank：湯　Becomes　汤
飛　Becomes 飞　*Vomits*
個　Becomes the "retard umbrella”　个
馬ー马
And perhap the most offensive
龍　Becomes this bucked up thing here　龙

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - strugglebunny - 2009-06-28

Machine_Gun_Cat Wrote:I love the Beans/table primitive and I love the "sow" primitive
My favourite Kanji at the moment are 遠、激　and　疑　Is really fun to write for some reason

As for ugly ones
忙ーWhat the *****
毎ーIs a pain in　The ass
And　赤　I just don't like it, never have

AND simplified chines- what the *****, I know it isn't particularly culturally sensitive to say so but oh my god could they mutilate the traditional Hanzhi worse if they were trying
I especially detest
gate:門＝门
Piggy bank：湯　Becomes　汤
飛　Becomes 飞　*Vomits*
個　Becomes the "retard umbrella”　个
馬ー马
And perhap the most offensive
龍　Becomes this bucked up thing here　龙
I love how you censor "*****" all the way through you post until you reach the last line Smile.

My favorite is 為. I just love writing it and how it looks. It's a shame its not really used with suru anymore; you can't even get it to show up in Windows IME (is that what it's called?) My goal while in Japan will beto bring it back into style. Haha

I hate writing anything with the wind radical/primitive. I just can't make it look good, and most kanji with it in it look stupid.

EDIT: I guess the board self censors...sort of. I didn't know that.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - liosama - 2009-06-28

Most kanji written in caligraphy are beatiful. My favourites though are
美
善
道
教
冬
夢 (chinese style)
無

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - dat5h - 2009-06-28

magamo Wrote:
Burritolingus Wrote:
Aijin Wrote:Hah! An American student saw me wrote 麗 and told me that it looked like a hobo's face. I can never look at that character the same way again...
Haha, it does look like a hobo! http://ryouko.imsb.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?162151_%CE%EF
Can't unsee it.
I laughed so hard, but my girlfriend scolded me for "bad learning techniques." Though, she thought it was funny, too Big Grin

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - undead_saif - 2009-06-29

The most beautiful is 夢, no doubt!
Every kanji with "turkey" primitive is ugly, eww.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Musashi - 2009-06-29

Nice ones:
飛
發 (not発)
我
太
式
武
花
神

ugly ones:
危
区
協
干
庁
壇
仏 (it used to be nice -->佛)

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Tobberoth - 2009-06-29

I personally think 互 is the best looking kanji. It's just... awesome.

There are TONS of shitty looking kanji, I really don't feel like listing them. 匁 is an example though, yuk.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - yukamina - 2009-06-29

忙 I think this one looks awkward.
And since Hanzi were brought up, I think simplified hanzi like 广 and 飞 look terrible.
Then there's this: 邊 Really really ugly stack of random pieces...

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - nac_est - 2009-06-29

yukamina Wrote:I think simplified hanzi like 广 and 飞 look terrible.
Instead I find those intriguing, mysterious. It's like they have invisible elements inside. I wonder what would be a good story for those Tongue

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - yukamina - 2009-06-29

nac_est Wrote:
yukamina Wrote:I think simplified hanzi like 广 and 飞 look terrible.
Instead I find those intriguing, mysterious. It's like they have invisible elements inside. I wonder what would be a good story for those Tongue
To me it's like the people who simplified them couldn't be arsed to some up with something better. Like when various complex components get simplified into 又, with no apparent rule. Your view is more enjoyable, though :p

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Tobberoth - 2009-06-29

Agreed about 又. For example, 欢. How could anyone guess it's supposed to be 歓? (Technically, it's 歡, but still.)

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Whatsifsowhatsit - 2009-07-02

Yay, I agree with just about everyone Tongue

I found another pretty one:
1592 陰 "Shade" (I don't particularly like the "pinnacle" primitive, but I like how it looks like a sort of Z in the right half, with maybe a kind of bridge running over it or something. I like to write it such that the bottom half of the diagonal of that Z can be thought of as extending straight from the top half of the diagonal, if you know what I mean.)

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - Nukemarine - 2009-07-02

Any using the 曽 primitive.

I used Heisig's suggestion of a tongue wagging monster, thought of such many times. I always see eyebrows, eyes and a mouth there.

Granted, since I started movie method, I attached そう to Pirates of the Caribbean, and 曽 brings up images of Davy Jones. Still works I guess.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - bflatnine - 2009-07-02

yukamina Wrote:
nac_est Wrote:
yukamina Wrote:I think simplified hanzi like 广 and 飞 look terrible.
Instead I find those intriguing, mysterious. It's like they have invisible elements inside. I wonder what would be a good story for those Tongue
To me it's like the people who simplified them couldn't be arsed to some up with something better. Like when various complex components get simplified into 又, with no apparent rule. Your view is more enjoyable, though :p
There was a legitimate reason for each simplification. It's not like some guys just sat around and thought of ways to make them have fewer strokes. Many of the simplifications were standardized from shorthand or straightened out cursive forms (訁vs. 讠, 應 vs. 应). Some reverted back to original forms of characters which had changed over time (無 vs. 无). A lot of phonetics were changed to make more sense in Mandarin if the phonetic in the traditional character didn't (鐘 vs. 钟).

This isn't to say that I like the simplifications; I don't. I think they should have kept those forms as they were: cursive forms, archaic forms, etc. But there was a lot of thought and research that went into it.

Kanji that are pretty/ugly - dbh2ppa - 2009-07-02

IceCream Wrote:犯 is pretty 想 is funny. I hate writing anything with a road. i like 脱. 悪　is nice too. wonder why they make the nice ones for bad things?
hmm... how is 脱 a bad thing?


i think 米　is pretty, 果 too... 虫 and 色 too... and anything with 豕.
亡, 尉, 慰 and 熟 are definitely not pretty.