Kanji symbols and Usagi Yojimbo

[Steve Hubbell]

I seem to recall this being mentioned before, but I might be mistaken... and with the publication of the 2004 calendar, the confusion in my mind concerning this subject has increased...

1) How are the kanji on the cover of the Usagi comics translated / derived? I assume that the first three are a phonic spelling of Usagi and the fourth character is a kanji for Yojimbo. I own a cheap little Webster's New World Japanese / English dictionary which supposedly illustrates the differant "alphabets" used as well as various Kanji symbols representing miscellaneous words. OK, now Usagi, as translation of rabbit does not seem to match the kanji, nor does the three symbols seem to match either "alphabet" for a phonic spelling based on u-sa-gi...

2) Last year I played around with trying to translate various words (such as names of months, days, holidays, etc) and numbers which might appear on a calendar. Anyways, now that I have seen an actual english / Japanese calendar, I am again confused concerning how the translations are derived... namely at the bottom of each page there are some Japanese characters which include the numerals 16 in the middle. Can anyone explain this to me? I have to admit to never having taken any classes in Japanese, etc. etc.
Arrigoto...
Steve

[ziritrion]

Actually, the first kanji of the four is the kanji for "usagi". The other three are the kanji for "yojimbo". I should point out that the proper romaji for yojimbo (Hepburn transcription) should be "youjinbou" or "yôjinbô" (the "o"s are long). The second kanji is "you" or "yô", the third one is "jin" (it would usually be pronounced as "shin", but this word is a special case) and the last one is "bou" or "bô".

If you want to look up any kanji, or you're looking for an on-line japanese-english-japanese dictionary, I highly recommend this website. It's really useful.

[takematsu]

1) I use http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html mesself. Just for laughs, here's the characters in a more block-printing form.

兎 "usagi". I respect you all too much to translate.
用 "You". Service, business.
心 "Shin" (unless it's in the middle of a word). Heart, spirit.
棒 "Bou". Club, rod.

A bit more poetic than "Ninja" = "Sneaky Chap", but a bit thuggish for Miyamoto-san...

2) Is that "16" or "十六"? It could be the imperial year, so if it says "平成16", then it's next year's calendar-- Heisei 16 (or so-- I'm pretty sure the 'new year' doesn't start on Jan.1, but I'm not sure if it runs from the date of coronation or from the lunar new year). If it's a calendar for 1941, then it's Showa 16. If it's neither, I'm stumped.

[Qion]

Can anyone tell me where can I get kenji symbols for Windows Word?

[ziritrion]

If you want to write anything on any program with non-latin characters (like Japanese Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji), you need to get an IME (Input Method Editor). I guess that you're using Windows, so you only have to go to the Windows Update webpage or www.microsoft.com and look for a Japanese IME.

If you're using Windows XP and you have the original CD-ROM, here's how you can install the IME without downloading anything:

1) Click on the "Start" button, go to the Control Panel and click on the "Regional and language configuration" (or something like that, I've got a Spanish version of Windows so I don't know how it is in English). A window will pop up, with three tabs on the top: "Regional options", "Languages" and "Advanced options". Click on the "languages" tab and select the "Install archives for Asian languages" box in the "Compatibility with additional languages" part of the window. Click on the "details" button. Another window will show up with all the configs relating to which languages you can input.

2) Put your Windows XP CD inside your CD-ROM drive. If a new window shows up with options relating Windows XP, just close it. Go back to the last window we opened in step 1, and click on the "Add" button. You'll see a new window with two scroll-down menus, the Input Device Language menu and the IME menu. In both cases, select the language you want to add: in our case, Japanese. Click on the "accept" button in all the pop-up windows.

That should do it. If you have any problems, just check out the Windows XP Help or email me.

Another option would be installing a Japanese word processor, or a non-Windows IME. I've tried the Japanese word processor made by NJStar (www.njstar.com), but IMHO it's a bit too messy. Give it a try, though, or look for another one.