Greetings,

I recently got a kindle and I wanted to find a way to read Japanese texts with furigana beyond reading them in a PDFs on the kindle because PDFs function differently than other ebooks. Kindle has a dictionary function which works for their ebooks (Mobi, Azw3, etc...) but not for PDF's. I wanted to be able to use the kindle dictionary to look up Kanji for their meaning, reading, and example sentences AND also have furigana, too much to ask?!?!

Books with furigana on amazon.co.jp or com are short in number, so I went looking for a way to make my own!

Long story short, I attempted a few converters (including Calibre) and was unable to convert a word file which had Japanese text with furigana to an epub, mobi, azw3, or the like. I poked around on the web to see if anyone had posted some tutorial and couldn't find much, the information I did find was buried in coding know-how that I don't have...

Here is my simple solution...

You need:

-Chrome browser

-DotEPUB extension, located here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...urce=gmail

-IPA Furigana extension, located here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...urce=gmail

-A gmail account with google docs enabled

-Some Japanese text / book / article


1. Copy your Japanese book.
2. Paste the text into a google docs document (Title it as you see fit).
3. Publish that document to the web using the options in the "File" menu.
4. Copy and paste the URL assigned to that document into a new window, then click enter.
5. Once on that page, you will see all the text from your book. Click the "ふ" symbol (right side URL field). This should insert Furigana into this page for all the kanji.
6. Right click your dotEPUB extension and save the EPUB wherever on your computer.
7. If you only need an EPUB you are done! If you want this on your Kindle use Calibre to convert the epub to AZW3 (this format will keep the floating furigana above the kanji and allow words to be searchable in your kindle dictionary).

No option for vertical text in this method, but this pretty much just blew up my Japanese reading library.

Cheers! Pass it on!


Adam Dabrowski

Wow this is awesome, I will definitely give this a try later.

You can also do a similar thing with FireFox and it's furigana inserter. I've noticed Firefox is a bit more forgiving of different types of encoding(so sometimes you won't have to go through all the conversion steps). Although, it crashes sometimes and hogs memory. You can also drag and drop subtitle files and use rikaisama.

I followed the steps indicated by dabrowskiowski, and it worked perfectly. Well thought, dabrowskiowski!

Unfortunately, when I try to convert an html file I have that already has furigana on it, Dotepub in Chrome does absolutely nothing. I changed the file name and path to ascii only, so the problem isn't there. Could it be because it's on my hard drive, and not on a website?

I tried with GrabMyBooks on Firefox too, and even though it produces an epub file, it comes with no furigana at all.

Does anybody know how to convert a Japanese html file with furigana into epub format?

But Epub doesn't play well with Rikai-sama through.

Thanks so much ! Works like a breeze.
The only problem I had was the final transfer of the AZW3 file to my Kindle paperwhite.
I had to make a direct USB connection and copy the file manually. All other methods (e-mail to my Kindle address, "send to Kindle" app) failed.
Is this the normal behavior or did I miss something?

PS : Sorry if this is not the place to ask, but I saw there were some Kindle users on this thread, who may have experienced the same problem:

I have installed the Japanses-English dictionary jmdict.mobi on my Kindle and made it the default dictionary for Japanese. It works properly as a popup when I read my newly generated azw3 file.
However, when I subsequently display the "Vocabulary" list, the French or English words it contains come with a definition from their corresponding dictionaries, but the Japanese ones do not. Should one somehow specify that the text is associated with the Japanese dictionary? Any idea?

Sebastian Wrote:Unfortunately, when I try to convert an html file I have that already has furigana on it, Dotepub in Chrome does absolutely nothing. I changed the file name and path to ascii only, so the problem isn't there. Could it be because it's on my hard drive, and not on a website?

To use a Chrome extension with an HTML file on your hard drive, you need to change the settings for that extension to allow it.

I don't find anywhere the setting to allow Chrome extensions to work on local files, but could publish the html file itself in Google Drive, and from there turn it into an epub file with correct furigana.

Such epub files can be read on Android devices using epub readers that support epub3.

Sebastian Wrote:I don't find anywhere the setting to allow Chrome extensions to work on local files, but could publish the html file itself in Google Drive, and from there turn it into an epub file with correct furigana.

Sorry, you're right, dotEPUB doesn't have it... (I wonder why not, it would make sense.)

I don't think this deserves a new thread and I don't want to derail this one either.

If you don't need to add furigana to the text you can use AozoraEpub as well. It takes any text, including the innocent kind, in any encoding; zipped collections of images; and urls and converts them to an ePub file. You can even choose between vertical or horizontal text.

Small intro to the usage because it's not user friendly:
1. Click ファイル選択 [Select File] in the bottom-right of the top pane.
2. Select your text file or cbz/zip file.
3. The 交換前確認 [Pre-Conversion Verification] window will pop-up.
4. Near the bottom center click ✓交換...

I've tested it on Windows and Mac, but it's Java so it should also work on Linux. I've only used it on iBooks and a Japanese Kindle but it should work on anything with a Japanese font.

I have not found a way to do it with local HTML files... I know... Bummer...

Glad this has helped some folks!

Sorry that I didn't originally note that I had only side-loaded these.

The comment above seems a bit off topic because this thread pertains to creating epubs with furigana. Aozora is great though. Sorry guy.


Read on!


A

Coming back to the origininal conversion method suggested in this thread, I have been using it on an innocent text file for a few days and found it to work nicely, except for a few glitches:

- the furiganization does not look very accurate: for instance I got "いちにん" for 一人, instead of ひとり, and a number of other errors (as far as I can tell…).

- After transfering the azw3 file to my Kindle paperwhite (as I wrote above, I had to use direct usb connection since "send to Kindle" did not accept to process the file), it seems that words are not always properly delimited. For instance, in some cases an extra "の” particle is selected together with the word, which obviously defeats the dictionary lookup.　

- When the dictionary lookup is successful, the entry is recorded in the Vocabulaty file, but without its definition. This might be due to the Jp->Eng dictionary I am using, though. If so, could someone recommend one which was already checked to work on the Kindle paperwhite (JEDICT-based is ok for me at the present stage)?

I saw "Kindle Previewer" recommended in another thread as providing a better rendering than Caliber, but I am not sure how it can be used here.

I'm having a similar problem. I'm trying to convert 走れメロス to a format I can use on my Paperwhite, and nothing seems to work. I get something that I can read, but I can't select words, only sentences.

I tried Calibre to generate AZW files, but the files are all horizontal text, and I wind up selecting sentences instead of words. Also, Calibre makes a mess of the filename, wants to take over a bunch of stuff, and dumps files on my Kindle I don't want. -_-

I tried using the Aozora to Epub converter with Kindlegen installed, and I got better output, in that the text is now vertical instead of horizontal, but I still can't select words.

I tried Kindle Previewer, and got the same output as Kindlegen. Can't select words, only sentences. It's driving me nuts, because it feels like the solution is so close!

Is sending every book directly to my Kindle really the only choice here? I suppose I don't particularly mind, but it would be a lot easier for me to simply use a USB cable and move the files around.

EDIT: When I sent the MOBI file via email, it worked like a charm (after a few false starts setting up my Kindle to receive files via email). But it would be nice to have a way to do this without having to send everything via Google and Amazon.

Not sure if there is a difference but this one works on a Japanese Paperwhite.

[太宰治] 走れメロス (mobi)

I can read it, but it only selects sentences, not individual words (so no look-up ability). I'm using a 1st gen Paperwhite. And every other book, including the ones I email to my Kindle, will let me select words and look them up. So yeah, I don't know what's going on. I guess I'm going to have to email books to my Kindle to get them to work right.

I think it's pretty obvious that you deserve to treat yourself to a new Kindle.

SeanMartin66 Wrote:You can also do a similar thing with Firefox and it's furigana inserter. I've noticed Firefox is a bit more forgiving of different types of encoding(so sometimes you won't have to go through all the conversion steps). Although, it crashes sometimes and hogs memory. You can also drag and drop subtitle files and use rikaisama.

I have successfully produced the furigana in Firefox using Furigana Inserter (detailed instructions on how to install on Mac here : http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.c...hrome.html), but I do not know how to perform the webpage-to-Ebook conversion (like dotEPUB in Chrome).

Does someone have a clue?

Edited: I have found that there exists a Chrome version of DotEPUB! Finally I could generate an EPUB file (with size limitations, though) and transfer it to my Kindle in AZW3 format (horizontal text) using Calibre.

The parsing of the original text using Furigana Inserter (MeCAB) seems better than the one achieved previously with IPA furigana + DotEPUB. I can now, in most cases, select Japanese words properly on the Kindle, and use the Japanese dictionary popup.

The only remaining problem is that the entries created in the Kindle "interactive vocabulary" list do not contain the word definitions from the dictionary, only the word and context sentence

Bottom line added (as of Aug. 2015): I finally gave up using my Paperwhite for reading Japanese books from Aozora, and switched to "Wakaru" on my iPhone, which performs much better despite the smaller screen. Still not perfect but I expect to see improvements occurring sooner there than in the pesky Kindle dictionary system.

Thanks to hints in this forum I have a procedure which on Linux produces vertical Japanese text with Furigana for Kindle Paperwhite/Voyage. This might also work on other platforms like Mac, not tested.

* As input, I use textfiles, i.e. unicode/utf8 or shift-jis like Aozora provides
* "kakasi" is then generating Furigana inside the textfile.
* AozoraEpub3 and the kindlegen software are generating the .mobi file
* the file can be uploaded using the Linux usb-storage driver or Calibre

Details at http://fluxcoil.net/doku.php/hardwarerel...dle_voyage

rich_f Wrote:I'm having a similar problem. I'm trying to convert 走れメロス to a format I can use on my Paperwhite, and nothing seems to work. I get something that I can read, but I can't select words, only sentences.

I tried Calibre to generate AZW files, but the files are all horizontal text, and I wind up selecting sentences instead of words. Also, Calibre makes a mess of the filename, wants to take over a bunch of stuff, and dumps files on my Kindle I don't want. -_-

I tried using the Aozora to Epub converter with Kindlegen installed, and I got better output, in that the text is now vertical instead of horizontal, but I still can't select words.

I tried Kindle Previewer, and got the same output as Kindlegen. Can't select words, only sentences. It's driving me nuts, because it feels like the solution is so close!

Is sending every book directly to my Kindle really the only choice here? I suppose I don't particularly mind, but it would be a lot easier for me to simply use a USB cable and move the files around.

EDIT: When I sent the MOBI file via email, it worked like a charm (after a few false starts setting up my Kindle to receive files via email). But it would be nice to have a way to do this without having to send everything via Google and Amazon.

I've been struggling with this problem too, wanting to read aozora ebooks on Paperwhite 2... Tried Aozora with Kindlegen, Aozora together with Kindle Previewer, the result is: dictionary use practically doesn't work properly.
Since I really prefer Amazon not sticking their nose into my reading habits, I'd rather not activate WLAN on my Kindle and sending files onto it. Is there no other way? T_T