Subject: Old Kanji
Kanji is getting to be a lost art.
I found my grandmother's passport but my husband (a shin-issei) cannot
read it, his father cannot read it ... finally, his father's tailor's
mother (92 years old) could read it! And my cousin
who was doing the family tree put down my great grandfather's name as
Juemon. I told him it was Shigemon, a less familiar name.
Unless a family member knows, an ancestor's name could be lost forever.
Subject: Old Kanji
Sometime in 1998, the newspapers in Japan reported that a conference
is being held or was being planned to help simplify and make uniform the various kanji.
Nations to participate included Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China.
Due to political differences (North and South Korea, China
and Taiwan), I don't recall reading anything more about it.
Documents and letters up to the immediate post-war period in Japan
contain many classic Chinese forms that are not generally used today
or just written in hiragana. It is really quite interesting.
Even in the States, due to the modernization of the Rafu Shimpo,
they now do not have all the old kanji. For example, when my father
died, they did not use or have the correct kanji (as appears on
my father's koseki) in his obituary. Instead they used the abbreviated one.
Subject: Re: Old Kanji
> Sometime in 1998, the newspapers in Japan reported that a
> conference is being held or was being planned to help simplify
> and make uniform the various kanji.
This is great, I am relieved! But a friend from Hong Kong says the
government is trying to simplify the kanji and some of the new Chinese
kanji, and it takes him a moment or two to recognize the "new" word.
I wonder if there is any uniformity in the changes, otherwise Japanese
kanji will soon look different from Chinese kanji.
My husband (a shin-issei) says there are still scholars at the
universities who do "ancient" translations but it cost a fortune to use them.
I just think it sad that after a few generations, one cannot read
one's own great-grandfather's name. Thank heaven for my uncle's
good memory! I also have a hanko (family seal) from my grandmother.
I am told that they no longer use that kanji for our family name.
I understand that some kanji is no longer accepted by the government
for use in a name for a child. If it is not in common usage, the kanji
cannot be given to a child. We had to have our daughter's name run
through the local shrine for the correct kanji and "match" to our last
name. This would not work for the American public who seem to occasionally
dredge up some ancient name for their child. Right now the midwest is
awash in Celtic names!
Subject: Re: Old Kanji
> A friend from Hong Kong says the government is trying to simplify
> the kanji and some of the new Chinese kanji. It takes him a moment
> or two to recognize the "new" word.
Of course Hong Kong is changing to the simplified character set since
it is now a part of China. I think Taiwan still retains the older
characters (as do other overseas Chinese).
> I wonder if there is any uniformity in the changes, otherwise
> Japanese kanji will soon look different from Chinese kanji.
Even today some Chinese kanji are a bit different from Japanese kanji.
My father in law (a communications expert--at least as far as computers
and electronics are concerned) tells me how challenging it is to code
all of the various character sets. There simply isn't one code for
Chinese, but at least 2 (or more). I am glad to hear that someone has
the foresight to try to standardize all of this.
Especially with the popularity of the Internet, this is going to be very important.
Subject: Re: Old Kanji
> A friend from Hong Kong says the government is trying to simplify
> the kanji and some of the new Chinese kanji. It takes him a moment
> or two to recognize the "new" word.
I read an article in the Japanese paper sometime last year that the
Mainland Chinese government passed a law forbidding the use of the
original kanji in street signboards and newspapers, etc.
The article went on to say that this law was passed to encourage
Hong Kong to adopt the simplified way of writing kanji used in the rest
of the country.
