Kanji - Breaking The Code

[kissakai]

Hi

 

In a previous post someone said his magic power was reading Japanese and I’m sure there were many jealous of this ability

 

As I can not read Japanese my target was to put any translations on to a spreadsheet so it would help as I didn'y have this magic power.

Last year I made available the Haynes and Wakayama in spreadsheet form and I am just about make Haynes, Wakayama and the Kinko Meikan also available in a spreadsheet but with additional functions but more about that in another post

 

Last week I visited Bletchley Park which was home to the ‘code breakers’ during WWII

I realised that it was not just a number crunching exercise but more about reducing the possible variations to probable variations.

In one of the cabinets was a card index showing individual kanji cards as the code breakers had to deal with many languages

 

I tried to apply some of this logic to translating mei and creating my own Index

Using the Wakayama spreadsheet I can create index cards with the kanji and their translations.

I intend to have two indexed sets:

        The first set in the number of strokes

        The second set in order of the probability of a kanji appearing in a mei

 

 

Assuming my image is clear enough to read you can see where I am going and I welcome your comments.

[Brian]

I think if this was WW2, you would have been snatched up as a codebreaker. Kudos on the amount of time and effort you spend on your Nihonto study. Impressive to watch you progress over the years.
This is a very interesting project, look forward to the results. Good luck Grev.

[ROKUJURO]

Grev,
 

that sounds like a lot of work!

Are you sure that there is no other functioning system already on the market? If I remember correctly, there are KANJI cards available from an NMB member. 

[Shugyosha]

Sounds like a great idea but as Jean says, a lot of work.

 

To overcome my ignorance to some degree, I try to adopt a problem solving approach to identifying kanji and I've often thought that it would be useful to have common sword and tosogu-related kanji grouped by radical as it is often possible to make out part of a kanji but not the whole thing and that could possibly be used as a shortcut when trying to work out inscriptions.

 

I'd thought I might put it together when I have more time on my hands...

[kissakai]

Hi

There are radicals in my first spreadsheet

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/15259-the-haynes-index-transcribed/?hl=haynes&do=findComment&comment=184082

 

When I originally saw the kanji flash cards they had sold out

I think the big help (to me anyway) is the use of probability

 

This is the start of the probability list of a kanji appearing in a mei:

Kanji %

光 77.8%

一 62.7%

乗 59.3%

寿 44.1%

正 42.4%

政 31.5%

長 22.9%

宗 22.0%

義 22.0%

友 20.7%

直 20.2%

随 19.5%

常 18.5%

山 17.1%

忠 17.1%

清 17.1%

重 16.8%

次 16.6%

[Shugyosha]

Hi Grev,

 

I'd completely missed that so I've lashed out $10 on a copy.

 

I suspect that it will be a very valuable resource.

 

Best,

John

[SwordGuyJoe]

That is so cool!

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Grev,

I'm puzzled 2 ways by your probability of Kanji appearing in a mei.  1st, at the top of your list is mitsu and at the bottom tsugu, and it seems that they are both fairly common in swordsmiths' names.  2nd, what use is it to know the probability?

I'm the one who published the Kanji Flashcards; here they are on my site:

http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/other/kanji-flashcards

Nice, I think, because they are writing, not print, and therefore closer to what is found in signatures.

I hope to reprint the set someday but the problem at the moment is a broken safety switch on my print shop's paper cutter.  Because of liability concerns they won't let me use the cutter.  I have to do the cutting because I won't trust anyone else to do the collating (I found out the hard way some years ago what a mess it is to have 27,500 cards out of order).  When they replace their cutter I plan to reprint the set.

Grey

[kissakai]

Hi Grey

I think your cards are great but when I previously tried to buy a set you didn't have any stock left and I agree using written kanji is better than being printed

I would recommend buying your kanji set but unless I'm looking at your listing incorrectly they are out of stock

 

In reply to probability

I only showed the top of the list (most common) as it 410 lines long

This is the bottom of the list of the 410 kanji

頭 0.2%

鳳 0.2%

鶴 0.2%

鹿 0.2%

 

There are well over 100 kanji that only appear once in any mei

Probability just means that I could learn 100 kanji that will be in 97% of every mei or I could learn 100 kanji that only appear in 1% of the mei

I just wanted to learn the most common

 

As some of you know I've only been collecting for around three years whereas there are loads of NMB members with many years of looking at kanji

For me this becomes a learning aid

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

The most important thing is that this will help your learning. As you type them and search them, little by little you'll start remembering them.

 

For those who asked about radicals, I use this very handy website for tricky translations. It has the multiradical + free draw options: http://kanji.sljfaq.org/mr.html

 

Same thing with Jisho: http://jisho.org/(don't know why but I've just been mostly using the first site even though both have similar options)

 

At least for me excellent websites like these two eliminate the need for radical spreasheets etc. They are so quick and easy to use.

[kissakai]

]Hi

I was thinking about what Grey said about using written rather than printed kanji

This image shows the differences betwen the two and using the Jisho web page as it shows the correct method to write the various kanji

I will do about ten cards using the most common kanji - I can try to memorise them but also using the above web page also practice the method of writing them

With only concentrating on a few kanji I will look into using Markus's book to learn the mysterious Sosho script at the same time

 

 

One day I may even remember some!!!!!!!

 

 

 

[kissakai]

Oops

Just notice I cut and pasted the image used on the last line so that's why it is missing from the example sheet