hiragana

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How are Kana Shodo Culture, the opera “ Madame Butterfly ”, and Japanese Aesthetics related?

By Kaoru Akagawa / 27/02/2014 / 0 Comments

The opera “ Madame Butterfly ” was written by the Italian composer Puccini in 1904, based on the short story written by John Luther Long in 1898.

Why the World Would End without Stroke Orders

By Kaoru Akagawa / 01/08/2013 / 0 Comments

“Help me. I am having an argument with my Japanese teacher.” A friend of mine named Jochen who just started to take Japanese lessons wrote to me one day shivering in a rage. He was practicing Hiragana, or Japanese characters, when his teacher told him that he must learn the correct stroke order. But he…

The Beauty of Inefficiency: A story about Traditional Hiragana

By Kaoru Akagawa / 22/03/2013 / 2 Comments

My grandmother is one of the last generations to use the old Hiragana in daily life. By contrast, my Father, who was born in

Kanji: 人

By Ponte Ryūrui / 11/07/2012 / 0 Comments

Shu shen (許慎, pinyin: Xǔ Shèn, ca. 58 C.E. – ca. 147 C.E.), the meaning of the character 人 was associated with the virtues of Heaven and Earth (i.e. the universe).

Kanji: 森

By Ponte Ryūrui / 20/06/2012 / 0 Comments

森 follows a concept of three pictographs of a tree (木, き, ki) combined in one character, and it emphasises thick tree growth, i.e. woods.

Kanji: 上

By Ponte Ryūrui / 14/06/2012 / 1 Comment

the character 上 originally meant “the higher part (or place)”, and it was represented by two horizontal lines. In later stages its meaning was broadened to

Kanji: 小

By Ponte Ryūrui / 24/05/2012 / 1 Comment

Xiao Xu Ben a revision of Shuowen Jiezi written by the Late Han dynasty scholar Xu Kai, supports the above mentioned definition of 小, by further explanation

Kanji: 女

By Ponte Ryūrui / 09/05/2012 / 1 Comment

a philologist of the Han dynasty (漢朝, pinyin: Hàn Cháo, 206 B.C. – 220 C.E.) is quite simple and straight forward. Xu states that the character 女 represents a woman.

Kanji: 出

By Ponte Ryūrui / 24/04/2012 / 1 Comment

The shape of the character 出 symbolises a step forward executed with vigour; each step starts from placing the heel on the ground. A strongly placed foot

Kanji: 十

By Ponte Ryūrui / 12/04/2012 / 0 Comments

the shape of 十 was based on the concept of a vertically oblong tool used for calculations (Figures 1 and 2). Please also refer to the etymology of the

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