drdata Posted October 11, 2010 Report Posted October 11, 2010 Hey all, perhaps better placed in the translation section but hoping someone here can shed some insight. There is a "kanehide kanji" document posted as Pepin's web site (http://www.samuraisword.com/nihonto_c/S ... /index.htm), which I have taken the liberty to attach here as well: Anyone have an idea what this document represents? For example is this some historical/biographical data that would make a full translation worthwhile? PS> I have had some luck with English/romanji to kanji via web site translators, but seem to be hopelessly stuck in the reverse direction. Aside from counting strokes and then manually searching the resulting subset, is there a better way to start with a kanji and do the reverse (back to Rōmaji)? I recently discovered that I can copy and paste kanji into sites to get a matching definition, but this does not work for an inscription on a tang, or the attached, which is a jpeg rather than descrete characters that can be edited/copied. I guess maybe an OCR for kangi would help here. Any such thing in the public domain? Thanks in advance Quote
cabowen Posted October 11, 2010 Report Posted October 11, 2010 Yes, it gives his different mei, his real name and address, then the prizes he won is sword competitions, then a history of his training and work, finally, his birth date and date of death. In my opinion, he was the best of all the Seki WWII era smiths.... Quote
cabowen Posted October 11, 2010 Report Posted October 11, 2010 Because someone will ask..... Kanehide Gifu Noshu ju Kanehide Kin saku Noshu Seki ju Kanehide Kin Saku Noshuju Kanehide Noshu Seki ju Kanehide saku Nakada Isamu (name) Seki shi Imonoshiya 433-1 (address) Zen Nihon Tosho Kai Kai'in (Member of All Japan Swordsmith Association) Doryokusho Twice (Effort Award), Nyusen (Entry award) 13 times. (post war) Dai Nihon Tosho Kyokai Kaicho Award, Rikugun Gunto Gijutsu Shorei Kai Kaicho Sho Award (war era) Student of the 13th Generation Masahide and Watanabe Kanenaga. Former Rikugun Jumei Tosho. In Showa 3 he entered the forge of Kawashima Masahide of Aichi Prefecture. In Showa 12 he entered the forge of Watanabe Kanenaga in Seki. In November of that same year he became the headmaster of the Tanren Juku (sword forging school). In December of Showa 15 retired from his headmaster position and in February of the following year he entered the service of the Seki Token Kabushiki Gaisha (Seki Sword Company). He was born in Taisho 2 and died in the first year of Heisei. He was 75. Quote
drdata Posted October 11, 2010 Author Report Posted October 11, 2010 Chris-san, much obliged for the rapid and complete translation. At 40+, trying to self-teach Japanese and its myriad forms is more than daunting. Thanks again, really. Quote
cabowen Posted October 11, 2010 Report Posted October 11, 2010 You are most welcome.... Japanese is daunting at any age! Keep at it, you will make progress.... Quote
george trotter Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 You are most welcome.... Japanese is daunting at any age! Keep at it, you will make progress.... I can remember how we used to occasionally lament to our Japanese teachers that they were wasting their time trying to teach us (as we just couldn't grasp it), they used to say : "think how we must feel!" But seriously...keep at it, the format of the smith's details conform to a common pattern and will slowly get familiar the more you read them. BTW I have also seen Kanehide as ni-ji mei. When my teacher was once complimented for her patience as a teacher of Japanese to gaijin, she once said: "if we are persistent enough, we can teach a rock to speak Japanese".... :lol: regards, George. Quote
cabowen Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 When my teacher was once complimented for her patience as a teacher of Japanese to gaijin, she once said: "if we are persistent enough, we can teach a rock to speak Japanese".... :lol: When Japanese people would go on and on about how hard it is learn Japanese I would remark that 130 million people can do it so it must not be impossible..... Quote
Guido Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 This discussion reminds me of an old continental European joke: How do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. How do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. How do you call someone who speaks only one language? American. :lol: Quote
george trotter Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 Hi Chris...mochiron desu...those teachers did go on...it can't be too hard...even little kids can speak it! :lol: Geo. Quote
cabowen Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 Hi Chris...mochiron desu...those teachers did go on...it can't be too hard...even little kids can speak it! :lol: Geo. Well, even little kids can be very smart...There are plenty of idioits and morons in any country....I have met plenty of them everywhere I have gone.... Sorry to take this thread off topic..... Quote
Guido Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 There are plenty of idioits and morons in any country....I have met plenty of them everywhere I have gone....Just out of curiosity: do you feel you somehow attract them ... ? Quote
cabowen Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 Just out of curiosity: do you feel you somehow attract them ... ? Sometimes it seems so..... Quote
drdata Posted October 12, 2010 Author Report Posted October 12, 2010 Ha, my most active thread yet. As a mono-lingual American I can attest to much that is said here. They say when young the brain easily adapts to new languages, and I missed that stage (being American), so now I have to brute force it. I was amazed how the average Dutch person can speak 4 languages rather fluently, and how they would often start in Dutch and then effortlessly transition to "yank" as soon as I spoke (or looked confused). But, as an American I am a rather crack shot, even with a sling shot. Perhaps not a skill shared by most Dutch. Only so much gray matter to work with I suppose. I can recall complaining in Spanish/German class about how hard their gender rules were. Compare that to Japan's Kanji, Kana, Hiragana, Katakana, and romanji, with differences in both written and spoken form based on gender and who knows what other sets of rules (foreign term (which assumes you know enough of their culture to know what is indigenous), vs combination words vs..) and it seems hopeless to get it all right. Limiting oneself to kanji translation perhaps spares one much of this, but dang they made this hard. And don't even get me started on the sheer number of kanji along with the relative artistic skill needed just to render one correctly. When you consider the average Japanese person like as not speaks fluent English I feel at a real disadvantage. I think I need to go find that sling shot. Regards Quote
cabowen Posted October 12, 2010 Report Posted October 12, 2010 When you consider the average Japanese person like as not speaks fluent English... Regards Nothing could be further from the truth..... Quote
Aloof Pegasus Posted October 13, 2010 Report Posted October 13, 2010 My first Japanese teacher didn't know if もうーっ was one word or two. Quote
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