Nihongo Ninja

Hello everyone! Japanese calligraphy (書道、shodou) was one of the first cultural activities I did when I first started learning Japanese. What is 書道, and how does it play into Japanese culture? Japanese Calligraphy「書道」 Japanese calligraphy involves using a calligraphy brush (筆、fude) and black ink (墨、sumi), along with other materials, to artistically write different Japanese characters (Kanji). There are many different styles, and each person writes calligraphy a little differently - which led to the common phrase 書は人なり (Sho wa hito nari), or "calligraphy reveals personality". The History of Shodou 「書道の歴史」 Like with many things, kanji originally spread to Japan from China. Confucian texts near the end of the third century were the first to introduce kanji, and their usage gradually increased until around the seventh century. One of the first forms of calligraphy was "Zen calligraphy" (墨跡、bokuseki), practiced by early Buddhist priests. It was known for its a...

Hello everyone! Before going to Japan, I knew there were some interesting words in katakana (read more about katakana here:  https://thenihongoninja.blogspot.com/2019/04/writing.html ), but there are some that are very interesting- especially those that come from English but have completely different meanings. It was a bit awkward when my host family asked if I needed their "consent", but that's just an example of an interesting change- it really means "electrical outlet", from "concentric plug"- not that we use that word in English often. What are 和製英語 (wasei-eigo), and what are some examples? Japanese-made English「和製英語」 What is 和製英語？ “Japanese-made English” or “English words coined in Japan”, wasei-eigo are expressions used in the Japanese Language that are based off of English words or word combinations, but don’t necessarily make sense in English. Some terms are recognizable as English, but others may be English word combinations that don’...

What are Japanese Pictographs? Last time, we looked at Hiragana and Katakana, the two writing systems that can be used to write any word in Japanese. However, there is a third writing system- Kanji, with over 7,000 characters to learn. Kanji Basics Kanji are symbols which represent ideas or words, and can be read differently based off of their context. For example, the kanji for ‘book’ 「本」 is read simply as ほん , “hon”, ‘book’ by itself. However, when combined with other kanji, its meaning changes. When combined for the kanji for ‘thing’ 「物」、 you form a kanji compound meaning “genuine thing”- ほんもの , “honmono”. Other kanji get completely different pronunciations based off of their context as well. For example, the kanji for “now”, 「今」、 ”ima” becomes “kon” with some other kanji, used to make words like 今夏、 ”konka”, ‘this summer’. Sometimes, even if you don’t know the secondary readings of kanji, you can guess the meaning of compounds. For example, the following compound: 「火山」 ...

How do you write in Japanese? English is pretty easy- we have 26 letters and a couple symbols, and can form any word using these Roman characters. However, it's a bit more complicated in Japanese! Here is some information about how the Japanese writing system works. Hiragana and Katakana Hiragana and Katakana are the two base writing systems for Japanese. Each has characters which represent the 46 sounds used to speak Japanese, so you can write any word after knowing these! In order for western learners to understand Japanese when they are learning, we often write words in "Romanji". Romanji is the romanized form of Japanese sounds and pronunciations. For example, "sushi" is technically Romanji. Romanji is essentially the name for when you write Japanese words using Roman characters. Hiragana「ひらがな」 First is Hiragana. Any word that is native to Japan is written in Hiragana- like "sushi", "konnichiwa", or "hiragana". C...

令和「れいわ」(Reiwa) Reiwa is the name of the new era (元号「げんごう」gengou) in Japan.  They normally come from different Chinese classical literature, because the era system was first used in China! Reiwa comes from the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, "Manyoshu". This new name will go in effect starting May 1st, which is when Crown Prince Naruhito will become the new emperor. What does Reiwa mean? Reiwa has two kanji: 令 and 和. 令 generally means "order" or "celebration", and 和 means "peace". Because of this, some people are puzzled over what Reiwa is supposed to mean. Some thought it meant "give in to order", but the lesser-used meaning of 令 ("good" or "beautiful") is the true sense- making the era mean "beautiful harmony". The current period, 平成, simply means "achieving peace". This new period is a very significant event for Japan. A new emperor, new era- it's like a fresh slate. If you...

四時塾語「よじじゅくご」( Yojijukugo) Notice anything interesting about this kanji compound? There are four characters, and that’s fitting- because this is the word for “four-character kanji compounds”. 四 = four 字 = character 塾 = mellow, ripen, mature, skill acquirement 語 = word, speech, language In this case, the 四字熟語 for 四字熟語 mostly make sense- something along the lines of “four-character-mature-word”. However, in most 四字熟語 , the meaning of individual kanji doesn’t necessarily give a helpful hint towards the true meaning of these compounds. Let’s look at some of my favorite interesting 四字熟語 below: 一石二鳥 「いっせきにちょう」 = killing two birds with one stone 一 = one 石 = stone 二 = two 鳥 = bird This one is about the easiest 四字熟語 I know of. These are all kanji that many Japanese learners can recognize within a short period of studying kanji. “One stone, two birds” translates pretty similarly to “killing two birds with one stone”, its English counterpart. Most 四字熟語 ar...