Help with Kanji.
 

Hello all, I wanted to know what this says:

This is on the back, just underneath the koshita, of a used hakama I was given as a present. Thanks!

It's not kanji, it's katakana. In this case, it's most likely the name of the owner of the last rear end to be tied up in this hakama. Phonetically it reads "KO-FEEN," but it's anyone's guess what the spelling of his/her name was. Kofine? Cofeen? Koffean?

As said, this is katakana, one of the two phonetic "alphabets" in Japanese. (The other is hiragana.)

Katakana is used for writing foreign words, new words that have no kanji, and so on. It was originally created for transcribing Buddhist texts for those who couldn't read Chinese. (Hiragana was created by women, for writing poetry, according to several sources.)

A literal translation of your kana would be Ko-Hu-I-N, but what non-Japanese name that would be is hard to say.

Brett Charvat suggests Kofine, Cofeen, or Koffean. I'd add Cohen as a possiblity, although that would generally be written with the characters for "Ko-He-N" or "Ko-E-N."

Thanks Brett and Brian,

My untrained eyes can't tell the difference, I'm working on speaking it at the moment. That makes sense, especially after I looked at the Hakama thread in the Aikido section. Too bad my name isn't Cofeen, but I like Nash better anyway. :p

I can't input kana on my computer here at work or I'd show you what Nash looks like.

It would be written with the characters "Na-Shu." ("Shu" is a two-character combination; "Shi" followed by a small "Yu.")

Cool thanks Brian,

By the way do you or anyone else know some books to learn this information from? Preferably one that would be easy for a novice to learn from, on their own, or with limited instruction.

Arigato Gosaimasu!

If you go to our Language forum, there are several threads on learning Japanese, including two sticky threads listing members' favorite books and Web sites.

Here's one to start you off: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese.htm

HTH.

Here you go
 

I'm not Brian, nor do I play him on tv, and he beat me to it in posting a link, but this is one of the books we used throughout high school japanese. Darn handy as supplemental practice in college now, come to think of it...:

http://www.kanjiclinic.com/reviewsandh1.htm

Actually, upon reading the review, it looks like this is just a one volume version. The work I'm talking about comes in two volumes (same author) and are workbooks with practice squares for writing the kana and kanji. You'll note that in all versions that the characters are given with their main readings (known as on- and kun-yomi *) along with a whole boatload of alternate readings.

I just thought of another book you might find useful. I cheated in high school and always wrote in romaji (japanese written in english letters, if you didn't know already). However, when I decided to do japanese in college, I decided to jumpstart my learning and put myself through a home study course. That in mind, I'd like to direct you to:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/083...lance&n=283155

The author apparently has other books on the market--I use his kanji dictionary quite frequently--and they've served me well. However, there are a few eccentricities, chiefly that the kana book uses a weird and very counterintuitive system of romanization (known as kunreishiki, I believe).

There are also two books called Nakama I and II, respectively, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them for self study. They do come with workbooks and CDs...but the authors both have PHDs in linguistics, so I think you can guess at the overwhelming amount of information :) . Truth to tell, I really only mention them because I use them in class...and my current teacher is mentioned in the acknowledgements :D .

Finally, if you haven't already, you might like to check out these two threads:

http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28429
http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28429

Apologies for the length, but I sincerely hope this helps

Chris Hodsdon (*who can never remember which reading is which...which was probably a factor in his most recent quiz's low score)

Thanks guys!

All that should keep me busy until I can get into a class. I think I'm going to order the kana workbook from amazon, and I'll be sure to add my modest opinion somewhere in the Language forum. Thanks again!

I would translate that as "Coffin"...Not much else..Unless your name happened to be Mr. Coffin...
It could be a few things..But it's not..The フィ is "Fi" either way you work it.
So コフィン is Ko-Fi-N...Or Coffin.
Regards.

Yeah, my bad.

I forgot than when the Hu/Fu kana is followed by a small I it becomes Fi.

Yeah...It's a bit wierd to have that on a hakama as a present...But hey...It might be a name..
Regards.

Indeed.

I just did a search of the phone book, and there are 17 Coffins listed in the Seattle book alone, from Ardeen Coffin to Selby Coffin; 110 in the state of Washington.

God..The Japanese would have a field day with that name..

Tombstone humor. ;)