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Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - Printable Version

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Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - momokun - 2011-12-24

Hey guys, I'm currently writing a thesis about kanji, and I'm trying to find examples of creative kanji use by natively Japanese speaking writers / mangaka / advertisers / your Japanese friends.

I decided to come you you guys, because this forum's helped me with my studying for years, and it also seemed like it could become a fun topic.

Examples of the kind of thing I mean:

- The drama "花より男子” is given the (completely non standard) reading "はなよりだんご” to make a pun with the Japanese saying "花より団子”

- In a science fiction story, when a human astronaut was speaking to an alien, the kanji "家” (home) was given the reading "ちきゅう" (earth)

- A mangaka (whose name I can't remember right now...) has been known to use kanji instead of katakana for standard manga sound effects, because the kanji (while having the same reading as the effect) has more strokes and so more weight on the page

- In Japan (as you all know from Heisig!) the 99th year is known as the "white year" because 百 minus 一 equals 白

If you can think of cases like any of these, or cases unlike any of these, I would really appreciate the tip; write about it, and where you found it. Thanks so much!

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - EratiK - 2011-12-24

If you talk puns and wordplays, there are lots of them in Gintama (I only know the anime). Off the top of my head, the main character 銀時 (gintoki) is called ginoji at some point because because that's the on-reading (episode about robot maids). Another episode (about batteries used for spaceships), a brand of batteries is called でんち, but ち　is written　with 血　instead of 池.

Also don't forget to mention how graffiti alters the shape of kanji to make creative use of them, that important too. Wink

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - astendra - 2011-12-24

To be fair, I don't think this is all too uncommon in fiction (although it probably depends on the genre), but out of what I've seen, Type-Moon takes the cake. 奈須きのこ *loves* making up his own alternative readings and writings, and often goes with non-standard kanji usage just for the heck of it. I still remember seeing カカ written as 呵々 at some point...

Here are some lists of 'hard' words that I found real quick, though some of it is names and the context is mostly lacking. Any specific questions, feel free to shoot me a pm.
http://lab.vis.ne.jp/tsukihime/data/yomikata.html
http://www.typemoon.org/faq/pages/1.html

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - Harpagornes - 2011-12-25

蟻が十 (ありがとう) was something I remember encountering while teaching junior high school students in the late 1980s. A quick Google search suggests that this, and similar variants, are still popular today.

I also recall someone showing me an imaginary kanji for elevator greeters (radicals: 女+上+下 in combination similar to 峠). Think of a woman going up and down in a lift all day.

No idea how common this sort of word play is. Japan, it seems, awaits her James Joyce.

A little outside your theme but also relying on word puns is the title of the novel 1Q84 (This makes sense if you say 1984 in Japanese) by Harumi Murakami. I must confess my first reading of the title was IQ84 (as in intelligence), the George Orwell reference completely eluding me.

Edit: Not sure how much research you want to put into this, but I imagine that a website built around this theme would attract plenty of attention, and examples, from Japanese native speakers. Crowd sourcing, Yeh!

(If one already exists then do let us know)

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - fakewookie - 2011-12-25

Off the top of my head, promotion for the game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (a game about stealth and infiltration), touting the game's co-op play capabilities, used the word:

潜友

Which (I believe) is a play on the word 潜入.

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - Harpagornes - 2011-12-25

当て字 in band names. Shultz gives two examples on his website here and points out this sort of punning is popular in certain bosozoku subcultures. (No idea of how popular they are, or what their music is like)
魔亜蛾麟 Margarine
殺悪愚 Thug

[Image: saag.jpg]

I am sure there are a multitude of examples out there.

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - zigmonty - 2011-12-25

Harpagornes Wrote:蟻が十 (ありがとう) was something I remember encountering while teaching junior high school students in the late 1980s.
Ha! There's a few signs up at work with that on them. Mainly telling us to clean up around the coffee machine.

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - bakuchiku - 2011-12-25

Kanji are often used creatively in Japanese song lyrics, for example in the song Promenade by Közi "半面黒像" is pronounced "シルエット".

Personally I like "愛羅武勇", meaning "I love you".

Creative Kanji Use (help me find it!) - Tori-kun - 2011-12-25

A: 大食いのたけし君も、宇宙ではあまり物を食べられないよ。
B: なぜ?
A: 宇宙には空気(食う気)がない。
from Wikipedia