What's the deal with the difference between and (110 eventide)?

I initially got confused because Heisig shows the first version as the main image, then gives the stroke order of the second version. Is it a size simplification? Or are you always supposed to handwrite it the second way? How would you write the first way?

Are there any others like this?

Cheers, Robin

It's most likely because the first is very difficult to write neatly by hand, there are a few other kanji that follow a similar premise, "say" 言 for example, is always written with a slightly angled stroke at the top, when drawn by hand.

These are just two different styles, nothing more. It's like MS Gothic and Times New Roman. I think he chose two different styles because then you are getting used to them from the beginning. When I started a few years ago I also confused Kanji only because they were written in a different style!! Don't laugh please
But now after these years....well you don't want to see my version of this Kanji if I just write a short note to my girlfriend. I doubt you'd see any similarity to this Kanji anymore...that's normal.

Oh and, by the way! There are indeed lots of Kanji "short forms" (not in the case of your example).
E.g.:
門　-> 门 (while this is the Chinese short form, but I couldn't find the Japanese which is almost the same)

I use them frequently when I write (very comfortable) and there are quite some of them. I think there is even a book on this topic. Very interesting.

Sincerely
Ben

This is "standard regular script" or "block script", known as 楷書 (かいしょ) in Japan, and is a typographic representation of a clean hand-written style.

This is 明朝 (みんちょう) (as in the MS Mincho font) and is the style originally used in wood-block printing developed by the Chinese, presumably of the Ming Dynasty, hence the name. It's based on hand written かいしょ but has adaptations to work better when carved into wood and used in the printing process.

I'm not sure why Heisig chose to use Mincho for the main character, it seems odd for a book that deals with the writing of kanji, as no one writes like that, it often obscures stroke style and it makes stroke counting difficult, but perhaps Aikou is right.

Thanks, nice explanations.

Also, I can't help but notice, pangolin, you've sneakily given me two kanji I recognise, and "tomorrow morning" is not a million miles away from the meanings of the primitives! My first compound word!

(Hmm, I don't seem to be able to post kanji here in Safari, no matter what encoding I set it to...)

colonel32 Wrote:(Hmm, I don't seem to be able to post kanji here in Safari, no matter what encoding I set it to...)

I had the same problem so downloaded Firefox and can now post 漢字 freely. If you aren't using it, give it a bash. So many great features, tabbed browsing rocks.

Cheers,