Bushidō

Bushidō (武士道), meaning "Way of the Warrior", is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor until death. Born of two main influences, the violent existence of the samurai was tempered by the wisdom and serenity of Confucianism and Buddhism. Bushidō developed between the 9th to 12th centuries and numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan.

According to the Japanese dictionary Shogakukan Kokugo Daijiten, "Bushidō is defined as a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period." In Bushidō: The Soul of Japan (1904), author Nitobe Inazō wrote: "...Bushidō, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe... More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten... It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career."

Nitobe was not the first person to document Japanese chivalry in this way. In his text Feudal and Modern Japan(1896) Historian Arthur May Knapp wrote:

"The samurai of thirty years ago had behind him a thousand years of training in the law of honor, obedience, duty, and
self-sacrifice..... It was not needed to create or establish them. As a child he had but to be instructed, as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self-immolation. The fine instinct of honor demanding it was in the very blood..."
Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, aspects of Bushidō became formalized into Japanese Feudal Law.

Translation of documents related to Bushidō began in the 1970s with Dr. Carl Steenstrup who performed a lifetime of research into the ethical codes of famous Samurai clans including Hojo Soun and Imagawa Ryoshun. Steenstrup's 1977 dissertation at Harvard University was entitled "Hôjô Shigetoki (1198–1261) and his Role in the History of Political and Ethical Ideas in Japan".

According to the editors of Monumenta Nipponica, "Tens of thousands of documents survive from the medieval period... Only a few have been translated into English, or are likely ever to appear in translation." One of the oldest English-language academic journals in the field of Asian studies, much of Dr. Steenstrup's significant findings were written for MN.

Primary research into Bushidō was later conducted by William Scott Wilson in his 1982 text "Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors" . The writings span hundreds of years, family lineage, geography, social class and writing style--yet share a common set of values. Wilson's work also examined the earliest Japanese writings in the 8th century: the Kojiki (712 AD), Shoku Nihongi (797 AD), the Kokinshu (early 10th century), Konjaku Monogatari (CA 1106 AD) and the Heike Monogatari (1371), as well as the Chinese Classics (the Analects, the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Mencius (CA 500 BC)).

Seven virtues of Bushidō
The Bushidō code is typified by seven virtues:

• Rectitude (義, Gi)


• Courage (勇, Yuu)


• Benevolence (仁, Jin)


• Respect (礼, Rei)


• Honesty (誠, Makoto or 信 Shin)


• Honour (誉, Yo)


• Loyalty (忠, Chuu)

-Translations from: Random House's Japanese-English, English-Japanese Dictionary
Others that are sometimes added to these:

• Filial piety (孝, Kō)


• Wisdom (智, Chi)


• Care for the aged (悌, Tei)

Hiragana Tattoo design

He asked Chinese for the translation of the Kanji symbols and Hiragana symbols.

However, Chinese doesn't use the Hiragana symbols.

It is only a Kanji symbols that Chinese uses, and the Japanese uses the Kanji symbols, Hiragana symbols, and the Katakana symbols.

The Hiragana symbols of the tattoo design given by him doesn't understand what you intend.

Please ask a Japanese translator if you want to be using the Hiragana symbols and the Katakana symbols for the tattoo design.

Kanji tattoo design

His tattoo design is a Kanji symbol "Reproduction".

It is a Kanji symbol design that the right and left reverses to a regrettable thing as for the tattoo given to him though it is a good word.

Please ask a Japanese Kanji symbols translator, and receive the document printed out from them about the method that never fails when you use the Kanji symbols tattoo design.

Japanese Proverbs (3)

• 類は友を呼ぶ - Like attracts like.


• 論より証拠 - Proof is stronger than reason.


• 学問に王道なし- There is no royal road to learning.


• かわいい子には旅をさせよ - Let your pretty child travel alone.


• 勤勉は成功の基 - Diligence is a base of success.


• 苦あれば楽あり - After a hard time comes a good time.


• 鶏口となるも牛後となるなかれ - Better be a head of a chicken than the tail of a bull.


• 好機逃すべからず - Never miss a good chance.


• 光陰矢の如し - Time flies like an arrow.


• 虎穴に入らずんば虎児を得ず - You cannot catch a tiger's cub unless you enter the den.


• 転ばぬ先の杖 - It's better to carry a cane than it is to fall.


• 大器晩成 - Great talent mature late.


• 盾の両面を見よ - Look at the both sides of the shield.


• 玉磨かざれば光なし - No gemstones shine without polishing.


• 短気は損気 - Short temper is disadvantageous.


• ちりも積もれば山となる - Many a little makes a mickle.


• 始めよければ終わりよし - Well begun is well done.


• 不言実行 - Action without words.


• 分別は才知に勝る - Discretion is better than wits.


• 病は気から - Sickness depends on mind.


• よく学びよく遊べ - Learn much and play much.


• 笑う門に福来たる - Fortune enters at the merry door --- Laugh and grow fat.

Japanese Proverbs (2)

• 多く見、多く聞き、而して少し語れ - See much, hear much, but speak a little.


• おごるものは心常に貧しい - A man with extreme pride have poor mind.


• 己の欲せざるところ、人に施す勿れ - Don't do anything what you don't want to be done.


• 己を責めて人を責むるな - Don't blame others but yourself.


• 今日出来ることを明日に延ばすな - Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.


• 思い立ったが吉日 - The best day to start something is the very day you make up your mind to do it.


• 終わり良ければすべて良し- Everything that ends well is all right.


• 栄える家に人集まる - People gather round a prosperous home.


• 先んずれば人を制す - Take the initiative and you will win.


• 笑いは百薬の長 - Laughter is the best medicine.


• 親しき仲にも礼儀あり - There should be courtesy even between close friends.


• 失敗は成功のもと - Failure is base of success.


• 小運は大知に勝る - A little luck is better than a big wisdom.


• 正直の頭に神宿る - God dwells in an honest man's head.


• 小事を軽んずるなかれ - Don't make light of small things.


• 勝敗は武器よりも人に有り - Victory doesn't depend on guns but the men who use them.


• 将を射んとせば馬を射よ - To shoot the general, shoot his horse first.


• 心配は身の毒 - Worry is poisonous.


• 千里の道も一歩から - A journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step.


• 備えあれば憂いなし - Be prepared and have no regrets.


• 七転び八起き - Seven falls and eight rises.


• 生兵法は大けがのもと - Crude tactics are the source of grave injury.


• 習うより慣れろ - Don't learn something, but get accustomed to it.


• 二兎を追うものは一兎をも得ず - He that hunts two hares at once will catch neither.


• 蒔かぬ種は生えぬ - No plants come from no seeds sown.


• 待てば海路の日和あり - The sun will shine on a voyager who waits.


• 実る稲穂は頭を垂れる - The ear that bear most rice hang lowest. (modesty)


• 良薬口に苦し - Good medicine tastes bitter.

Japanese Proverbs (1)

It introduces the proverb of Japan today.

There are various proverbs also in Japan.

It is various like a peculiar one to Japan and what, etc. transmitted from China and America and European countries.

There might be a maxim that you know possibly, too.

• 明日は明日の風が吹く - Tomorrow will be another day.


• 男は度胸、女は愛嬌 - Men should have courage, and women charm.


• 明日の百より今日の五十 - Fifty today is better than one hundred tomorrow.


• 有るは無いに勝る - To have something is better than nothing.


• 流れ腐らず - A stream will never be rotten.


• 衣食足りて礼節を知る - A man will know manners after he can afford clothes and food.


• 急がば回れ - If you hurry, take a long but steady road.


• 一期一会 - Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur.


• 一を聞いて十を知る - To hear one word and understand ten.


• 一石二鳥 - To kill two birds with one stone.


• 一挙両得 - Two profit with one action.


• 一刻千金 - Every moment is precious.


• 一寸の虫にも五分の魂 - Even a smallest worm has its life.

Japanese Kanji Symbols

He is putting the tattoo written, "Friend" by the kanji symbol.

However, it is obvious that it is a failure if the Japanese sees his tattoo.

Because the kanji tattoo design of "Friend" reverses right and left.

Who gave him this kanji tattoo design?

There might not have been such failure if he was asking the kanji translator in Japan for the translation.

Please ask a professional kanji translator if you want to be obtaining a perfect kanji symbols.

Japanese Kanji Symbols

He is doing the tattoo written, "Dragon" by the kanji symbol.

However, "Dragon" written by the kanji symbol given by him is a kanji to which the right and left reverses.

It is obvious that it is a failure if Chinese and the Japanese see this.

If you want to be obtaining the kanji symbols of perfect Japan, it requests it to the translator in Japan where understanding exists about the kanji symbols recommended.

Japanese Kanji Symbols

The person who often uses the Kanji symbols of Japan for the tattoo design is seen recently.

However, the person who is using the kanji symbol of a wrong translation and a wrong design is seen in them, too.

The photograph above is written, "Eternity", "Home", and "Honor" by the kanji symbol.

The tattoo given to him is a kanji symbol to which the top and bottom reverses though the kanji symbol translation is perfect.

It might be mysterious for the person in America and European countries to use the Japanese kanji symbols.

If you use the kanji symbols perfectly translated, you will obtain a cool, beautiful Japanese kanji symbols design.

Please ask the kanji symbols translator in Japan if you want to obtain the kanji symbol design into which you are perfectly translated.

Katakana (2)

History
Katakana was developed in the early Heian Period from parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of shorthand. For example, ka カ comes from the left side of ka 加 "increase". The table below shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original Chinese character eventually became each corresponding symbol.

Computer encoding
In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MS), many fonts intended for Chinese text also include katakana (such as MS Song).

Katakana have two forms of encoding, halfwidth hankaku (半角, hankaku?) and fullwidth zenkaku (全角, zenkaku?). The halfwidth forms come from JIS X 0201 originally. This includes halfwidth katakana in right side area of ASCII. That is, most halfwidth katakana could be represented by one byte each. In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208 were introduced to represent hiragana, kanji, and other characters. JIS_X_0208 has its own katakana area independently of one-byte character set such as JIS_X_0201. katakana of JIS_X_0208 takes two-byte (at least), so many (especially old) devices output these katakana as two-byte-width. This is why katakana of JIS_X_0201 is called halfwidth and JIS_X_0208, fullwidth. Therefore, most encodings have no halfwidth hiragana.

Although often said to be obsolete, in fact the halfwidth katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example, the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or halfwidth katakana, and halfwidth katakana were commonly used in computerized cash register displays, on shop receipts, and Japanese digital television and DVD subtitles. Several popular Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP, Unicode and Shift-JIS have halfwidth katakana code as well as fullwidth. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP has no halfwidth katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP. Halfwidth katakana are commonly used to save memory space.

Katakana (1)

Katakana (片仮名, カタカナ or かたかな, Katakana) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet. The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji.

Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners, and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts.

There are two main systems of ordering katakana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Usage
In modern Japanese, katakana are most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (called gairaigo). For example, "television" is written terebi (テレビ, terebi). Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and personal names. For example America is written アメリカ Amerika (America also has its own kanji (ateji) Amerika (亜米利加, Amerika) or for short, Beikoku (米国, Beikoku) which literally means "Rice Country").

Katakana are also be used for onomatopoeia, words used to represent sounds; for example pinpon (ピンポン, pinpon), the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell, would usually be written in katakana.

Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana.

Katakana are also often, but not always, used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ. Katakana are also used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings (i.e., billboards). For example, it is common to see ココ koko ("here"), ゴミ gomi ("trash") or メガネ megane ("glasses"), and words to be emphasized in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the European usage of italics.

Pre-World War II official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way that hiragana and kanji are mixed in modern Japanese texts, that is, katakana were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o.

Katakana were also used for telegrams in Japan before 1988, and for computer systems - before the introduction of multibyte characters - in the 1980s. Most computers in that era used katakana instead of kanji and/or hiragana for output.

Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese dialects which are borrowed directly rather than using the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings, are often written in katakana. Examples include:

マージャン (麻將/麻雀), mājan (mahjong); in Mandarin májiàng
ウーロン茶 (烏龍茶), ūroncha (Oolong tea), from Mandarin wūlóng
チャーハン (炒飯), chāhan (fried rice)
チャーシュー (叉焼), chāshū (barbecued pork), from Cantonese cha siu
シューマイ (焼売), shūmai (a kind of dim sum), from Cantonese siu maai.
The very common Chinese loanword ラーメン (rāmen) is rarely written with its kanji 拉麺.

There are rare cases where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in katakana. An example of this is コーヒー (kōhī), "coffee", which can be alternatively written as 珈琲. This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops for novelty.

Katakana are sometimes used instead of hiragana as furigana to give the pronunciation of a word written in Roman characters, or for a foreign word, which is written as kanji for the meaning, but intended to be pronounced as the original.

Katakana are also sometimes used to indicate words being spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual accent, by foreign characters, robots, etc. For example, in a manga, the speech of a foreign character or a robot may be represented by, for example, コンニチワ (konnichiwa, meaning "hello") instead of the more usual hiragana こんにちは (konnichiwa).

Katakana are also used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary.

Some Japanese personal names are written in katakana. This was more common in the past, hence elderly women often have katakana names.

It is very common to write words with difficult-to-read kanji in katakana. This phenomenon is often seen with medical terminology. For example, in the word 皮膚科 hifuka (dermatology), the second kanji, 膚, is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is commonly written as 皮フ科 or ヒフ科, mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, difficult-to-read kanji such as 癌 gan (cancer) are often written in katakana or hiragana.

Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ryū of shakuhachi, and in sankyoku ensembles with koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi.

Orthography
Foreign phrases are sometimes transliterated with a middle dot called nakaguro (中黒, nakaguro) or a space separating the words. However, in cases where it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo words in the phrase, the middle dot is not used. For example, the phrase コンピュータゲーム ("konpyūta gēmu", or "computer game"), containing two very well-known gairaigo, is not written with a middle dot.

Katakana spelling differs slightly from hiragana. While hiragana spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, katakana usually uses a vowel extender mark called a chōon. This mark is a short line following the direction of the text, horizontal in yokogaki, or horizontal text, and vertical in tategaki, or vertical text. However, it is more often used when writing foreign loanwords; long vowels in Japanese words written in katakana are usually written as they would be in hiragana. There are exceptions such as ローソク(蝋燭)(rōsoku)(candle) or ケータイ(携帯)(kētai)(mobile phone).

A small tsu ッ called a sokuon indicates a geminate consonant, which is represented in rōmaji by doubling the following consonant. For example, bed is written in katakana as ベッド (beddo).

The sokuon is sometimes used in places which have no equivalent in native sounds. For example, double-h in place of "ch" is common in German names. Bach, for example, comes out as バッハ (Bahha); Mach is マッハ (Mahha). The doubling of the "h" in Bach and Mach (via use of the underlying small tsu) is probably the kana that best fits those German names.

Related sounds in various languages are hard to express in Japanese, so Khrushchev becomes フルシチョフ (Furushichofu). Ali Khamenei is アリー・ハーメネイー (Arī Hāmeneī). The Japanese Wikipedia has references to both イツハク・パールマン (Itsuhaku Pāruman) and イツァーク・パールマン (Itsāku Pāruman), Itzhak Perlman.

Hiragana (2)

History
Hiragana developed from man'yōgana, Chinese characters used for their pronunciations, a practice which started in the 5th century. The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy. The figure below shows the derivation of hiragana from manyōgana via cursive script. The upper part shows the character in the regular script form, the center character in red shows the cursive script form of the character, and the bottom shows the equivalent hiragana.

When they were first created, hiragana were not accepted by everyone. Many felt that the language of the educated was still Chinese. Historically, in Japan, the regular script (kaisho) form of the characters, so-called otokode (男手, otokode), "men's writing", was used by men; the cursive script (sōsho) form of the kanji was used by women. Thus hiragana first gained popularity among women, who were not allowed access to the same levels of education as men. From this comes the alternative name of onnade (女手, onnade) "women's writing". For example, The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively.

Male authors came to write literature using hiragana. Hiragana, with its flowing style, was used for unofficial writing such as personal letters, while katakana and Chinese were used for official documents. In modern times, the usage of hiragana has become mixed with katakana writing. Katakana is now relegated to special uses such as recently borrowed words (i.e., since the 19th century), names in transliteration, the names of animals, in telegrams, and for emphasis.

Originally, all sounds had more than one hiragana. In 1900, the system was simplified so each sound had only one hiragana. Other hiragana are known as hentaigana (変体仮名, hentaigana)

The pangram poem Iroha-uta ("ABC song/poem"), which dates to the 10th century, uses every hiragana once　(except n ん, which was just a variant of む before Muromachi era). In the chart below, the romanization shows the hiragana; the reading in modern Japanese is in parentheses.

Note that the last line begins with an obsolete kana (we ゑ).

いろはにほへと(いろはにおえど)　I ro ha ni ho he to(Iro wa nioedo)　Even the blooming flowers

ちりぬるを(ちりぬるを) 　chi ri nu ru wo(chirinuru o)　Will eventually fade

わかよたれそ(わがよたれぞ)　wa ka yo ta re so(waga yo tare zo)　Even our world

つねならむ(つねならん)　tsu ne na ra mu(tsune naran)　Is not eternal

うゐのおくやま(ういのおくやま)　u wi no o ku ya ma(ui no okuyama)　The deep mountains of vanity

けふこえて(きょうこえて)　ke fu ko e te(kyō koete)　Cross them today

あさきゆめみし(あさきゆめみじ)　a sa ki yu me mi shi(asaki yume miji)　And superficial dreams

ゑひもせす(えいもせず)　we hi mo se su(ei mo sezu)　Shall no longer delude you.

Hiragana (1)

Hiragana (平仮名,ひらがな or　ヒラガナ, Hiragana) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana and kanji; the Latin alphabet is also used in some cases. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each symbol represents one mora. Each kana is either a vowel (such as a あ); a consonant followed by a vowel (such as ka か); or n ん, a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng (IPA: [ŋ]), or like the nasal vowels of French.

Hiragana are used for words for which there are no kanji, including particles such as kara から "from," and suffixes such as ~san さん "Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms." Hiragana are also used in words for which the kanji form is not known to the writer or readers, or is too formal for the writing purpose. Verb and adjective inflections, as, for example, BE MA SHI TA (べました) in tabemashita (食べました, tabemashita "ate"), are written in hiragana. In this case, part of the root is also written in hiragana. Hiragana are also used to give the pronunciation of kanji in a reading aid called furigana. The article Japanese writing system discusses in detail when the various systems of writing are used.

There are two main systems of ordering hiragana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Writing system
The hiragana consist of a basic set of characters, the gojūon, which can be modified in various ways. By adding a dakuten marker ( ゛), an unvoiced consonant such as k or t is turned into a voiced consonant such as g or d: k→g, t→d, s→z, and h→b.

Hiragana beginning with an h can also add a handakuten marker ( ゜) changing the h to a p. A small version of the hiragana for ya, yu or yo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ respectively) may be added to hiragana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide palatalization. Addition of the small y kana is called yōon. A small tsu っ called a sokuon indicates a geminate (doubled) consonant. It appears before fricatives and stops, and sometimes at the end of sentences. This is represented in rōmaji by doubling the following consonant.

In informal writing, small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (はぁ, ねぇ).

There are a few hiragana which are rarely used. Wi ゐ and we ゑ are obsolete. Vu ゔ is a modern addition used to represent the /v/ sound in foreign languages such as English, but since Japanese from a phonological standpoint does not have a /v/ sound, it is pronounced as /b/ and mostly serves as a more accurate indicator of a word's pronunciation in its original language. However, it is rarely seen because loanwords and transliterated words are usually written in katakana, where the corresponding character would be written as ヴ.

Spelling rules
With a few exceptions for sentence particles は, を, and へ (pronounced as wa, o, and e), and a few other arbitrary rules, Japanese is spelled as it sounds. This has not always been the case: a previous system of spelling, now referred to as historical kana usage, had many spelling rules; the exceptions in modern usage are the legacy of that system. The exact spelling rules are referred to as kanazukai (仮名遣, kanazukai?).

There are two hiragana pronounced ji (じ and ぢ) and two hiragana pronounced zu (ず and づ). These pairs are not interchangeable. Usually, ji is written as じ and zu is written as ず. There are some exceptions. If the first two syllables of a word consist of one syllable without a dakuten and the same syllable with a dakuten, the same hiragana is used to write the sounds. For example chijimeru (‘to boil down’ or ‘to shrink’) is spelled ちぢめる. For compound words where the dakuten reflects rendaku voicing, the original hiragana is used. For example, chi (血 "blood") is spelled ち in plain hiragana. When 鼻 hana (“nose”) and 血 chi ("blood") combine to make hanaji 鼻血 "nose bleed"), the sound of 血 changes from chi to ji. So hanaji is spelled はなぢ according to ち: the basic hiragana used to transcribe 血. Similarly, Tsukau (使う; "to use") is spelled つかう in hiragana, so kanazukai (かな使い; "kana use", or "kana orthography") is spelled かなづかい in hiragana.

However, this does not apply when kanji are used phonetically to write words which do not relate directly to the meaning of the kanji (see also ateji). The Japanese word for ‘lightning’, for example, is inazuma (稲妻). The 稲 component means ‘rice plant’, is written いな in hiragana and is pronounced: ina. The 妻 component means ‘wife’ and is pronounced tsuma (つま) when written in isolation ー or frequently as zuma (ずま) when it features after another syllable. Neither of these components have anything to do with ‘lightning’, but together they do when they compose the word for ‘lightning’. In this case, the default spelling in hiragana いなずま rather than いなづま is used.

Hiragana usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana. The chōon (vowel extender mark) (ー) used in katakana is rarely used with hiragana, for example in the word らーめん, ramen, but this usage is considered non-standard.

No standard Japanese words begin with the kana ん (n). This is the basis of the word game shiritori. ん is sometimes directly followed by a vowel, for example, ren'ai 恋愛 ("romantic love, emotion") is written in hiragana as れんあい rather than れない renai (a nonexistent word). ん n is normally treated as its own syllable and is separate from the other N based kana. A notable exception to this is some spoken usage; one such example is where ん n is used instead of ない nai in the negative conjugation of a word, such that わからない wakaranai meaning "[I] don't understand" is rendered as わからん wakaran.

A rule when writing kana is the size of the character with respect to other characters. In general, each normally sized hiragana symbol is pronounced individually, with smaller sized versions being used in conjunction with the preceding, such as when a normally sized に ni and a small や　ya combine to form the syllable にゃ nya. The singular exception to this is in the case of a small つ tsu (っ), representing the first part of a long consonant, where the sound is used in conjunction with the succeeding syllable, rather than the preceding.

Sokuon is a small tsu (っ) that represents a doubled consonant.

kite (来て, come) - kʲite
kitte (切手, postage stamp) - kʲitːe / kʲitte / kʲit̚te

Kanji written styles

There are numerous styles, or scripts, in which Chinese characters can be written, deriving from various calligraphic and historical models. Most of these originated in China and are now common, with minor variations, in all countries where Chinese characters are used. These characters were used over 3,000 years ago.

The Shang dynasty Oracle Bone and Zhou dynasty scripts found on Chinese bronze inscriptions being no longer used, the oldest script that is still in use today is the Seal Script (simplified Chinese: 篆书; traditional Chinese: 篆書; pinyin: zhuànshū). It evolved organically out of the Spring and Autumn period Zhou script, and was adopted in a standardized form under the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The seal script, as the name suggests, is now only used in artistic seals this was copied and sticked. Few people are still able to read it effortlessly today, although the art of carving a traditional seal in the script remains alive; some calligraphers also work in this style.

Scripts that are still used regularly are the "Clerical Script" (simplified Chinese: 隶书; traditional Chinese: 隸書; pinyin: lìshū) of the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the Weibei (Chinese: 魏碑; pinyin: wèibēi), the "Regular Script" (simplified Chinese: 楷书; traditional Chinese: 楷書; pinyin: kǎishū) used for most printing, and the "Semi-cursive Script" (simplified Chinese: 行书; traditional Chinese: 行書; pinyin: xíngshū) used for most handwriting.

The Cursive Script (simplified Chinese: 草书; traditional Chinese: 草書; pinyin: cǎoshū; literally "grass script") is not in general use, and is a purely artistic calligraphic style. The basic character shapes are suggested, rather than explicitly realized, and the abbreviations are extreme. Despite being cursive to the point where individual strokes are no longer differentiable and the characters often illegible to the untrained eye, this script (also known as draft) is highly revered for the beauty and freedom that it embodies. Some of the Simplified Chinese characters adopted by the People's Republic of China, and some of the simplified characters used in Japan, are derived from the Cursive Script. The Japanese hiragana script is also derived from this script.

There also exist scripts created outside China, such as the Japanese Edomoji styles; these have tended to remain restricted to their countries of origin, rather than spreading to other countries like the standard scripts described above.

Chinese character

A Chinese character, Han character or Hanzi (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì) is a logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi), Japanese (kanji), less frequently Korean (hanja), and formerly Vietnamese (hán tự).

The number of Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary is approximately 47,035, although a large number of these are rarely used variants accumulated throughout history. Studies carried out in China have shown that full literacy requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters.

In the Chinese writing system, each character corresponds to a single spoken syllable. A majority of words in all modern varieties of Chinese are poly-syllabic and thus require two or more characters to write. Cognates in the various Chinese languages/dialects which have the same or similar meaning but different pronunciations can be written with the same character. In addition, many Chinese characters were adopted according to their meaning by the Japanese and Korean languages to represent native words, disregarding pronunciation altogether.

Chinese characters are also known as sinographs, and the Chinese writing system as sinography. Non-Chinese languages which have adopted sinography — and, with the orthography, a large number of loanwords from the Chinese language — are known as Sinoxenic languages, whether or not they still use the characters. The term does not imply any genetic affiliation with Chinese. The major Sinoxenic languages are Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

History
In the last 50 or so years, inscriptions have been found on Neolithic pottery in a variety of locations in China such as Bànpō near Xī’ān, as well as on bone and bone artifacts at Hualouzi, Chang'an County near Xi'an. These simple, often geometric marks have been frequently compared to some of the earliest known Chinese characters, on the oracle bones, and some have taken them to mean that the history of Chinese writing extends back over six millennia. However, because these marks occur singly, without any context to imply usage as writing, and because they are generally extremely crude and simple, Qiú Xīguī (2000, p.31) concluded that "we do not have any basis for stating that these constituted writing, nor is there reason to conclude that they were ancestral to Shang dynasty Chinese characters." Isolated graphs and pictures continue to be found periodically, frequently accompanied by media reports pushing back the purported beginnings of Chinese writing a few thousand years. For example, at Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 pictorial cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, leading to headlines such as "Chinese writing '8,000 years old.'" Similarly, archaeologists report finding a few inscribed symbols on tortoise shells at the Neolithic site of Jiahu in Henan, dated to around 6,600-6,200BCE, leading to headlines of "'Earliest writing' found in China. However, each time, scholars urge caution and skepticism. Professor David Keightley, a renowned expert on Shang script, urged caution in the latter instance, noting "There is a gap of about 5,000 years. It seems astonishing that they would be connected," adding "we can't call it writing until we have more evidence."

An additional problem with many such claims of connections to later Chinese writing is the lack of any direct cultural connection to Shāng culture, combined with gaps between them of many millennia. One group of sites without such problems is the Dàwènkǒu culture sites (2800-2500 BCE, only one millennium earlier than the early Shāng culture sites, and positioned so as to be plausibly albeit indirectly ancestral to the Shāng). There, a few inscribed pottery and jade pieces have been found one of which combines pictorial elements (resembling, according to some, a sun, moon or clouds, and fire or a mountain) in a stack which brings to mind the compounding of elements in Chinese characters. Major scholars are divided in their interpretation of such inscribed symbols. Some, such as Yú Xĭngwú, Táng Lán and Lĭ Xuéqín, have identified these with specific Chinese characters. Others such as Wang Ningsheng interpret them as pictorial symbols such as clan insignia, rather than writing. But as Wang Ningsheng points out, "True writing begins when it represents sounds and consists of symbols that are able to record language. The few isolated figures found on pottery still cannot substantiate this point."

Legendary origins
According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie (c. 2650 BC), a bureaucrat under the legendary emperor, Huangdi. The legend tells that Cangjie was hunting on Mount Yangxu (today Shanxi) when he saw a tortoise whose veins caught his curiosity. Inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of those veins, he studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and the stars in the sky, and invented a symbolic system called zì — Chinese characters. It was said that on the day the characters were born, Chinese heard the devil mourning, and saw crops falling like rain, as it marked the beginning of the world.

Etymology of samurai and related words

The term samurai originally meant "those who serve in close attendance to nobility", and was written in the Chinese character (or kanji) that had the same meaning. In Japanese, it was originally pronounced in the pre-Heian period as saburapi and later as saburai, then samurai in the Edo period. In Japanese literature, there is an early reference to samurai in the Kokinshū (古今集, early 10th century):

Attendant to your nobility
Ask for your master's umbrella
The dews 'neath the trees of Miyagino
Are thicker than rain
(poem 1091)

The word bushi (武士, lit. "warrior or armsman") first appears in an early history of Japan called Shoku Nihongi (続日本記, 797 A.D.). In a portion of the book covering the year 723 A.D., Shoku Nihongi states: "Literary men and Warriors are they whom the nation values". The term bushi is of Chinese origin and adds to the indigenous Japanese words for warrior: tsuwamono and mononofu.

Bushi was the name given to the ancient Japanese soldiers from traditional warrior families. The bushi class was developed mainly in the north of Japan. They formed powerful clans, which in the 12th Century were against the noble families who were grouping themselves to support the imperial family who lived in Kyoto. Samurai was a word used by the Kuge aristocratic class with warriors themselves preferring the word bushi. The term Bushidō, the "way of the warrior," is derived from this term and the mansion of a warrior was called bukeyashiki.

The terms bushi and samurai became synonymous near the end of the 12th century, according to William Scott Wilson in his book Ideals of the Samurai—Writings of Japanese Warriors. Wilson's book thoroughly explores the origins of the word warrior in Japanese history as well as the kanji used to represent the word. Wilson states that bushi actually translates as "a man who has the ability to keep the peace, either by literary or military means, but predominantly by the latter".

It was not until the early modern period, namely the Azuchi-Momoyama period and early Edo period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries that the word saburai was replaced with samurai. However, the meaning had changed long before that.

During the era of the rule of the samurai, the term yumitori (弓取, "bowman") was also used as an honorary title of an accomplished warrior even though swordsmanship had become more important. (Japanese archery (kyujutsu) is still strongly associated with the war god Hachiman.)

A samurai with no attachment to a clan or daimyo (大名) was called a ronin (浪人). In Japanese, the word ronin means "wave man", a person destined to wander aimlessly forever, like the waves in the sea. The word came to mean a samurai who was no longer in the service of a lord because his lord had died, because the samurai had been banished or simply because the samurai chose to become a ronin.

The pay of samurai was measured in koku of rice (180 liters; enough to feed a man for one year). Samurai in the service of the han are called hanshi.

The following terms are related to samurai or the samurai tradition:

・Uruwashii
a cultured warrior symbolized by the kanji for "bun" (literary study) and "bu" (military study or arts)

・Buke (武家)
A martial house or a member of such a house．

・Mononofu (もののふ)
An ancient term meaning a warrior.

・Musha (武者)
A shortened form of bugeisha (武芸者), lit. martial art man.

・Shi (士)
A word roughly meaning "gentleman," it is sometimes used for samurai, in particular in words such as bushi (武士, meaning warrior or samurai).

・Tsuwamono (兵)
An old term for a soldier popularized by Matsuo Bashō in his famous haiku. Literally meaning a strong person.

natsukusa ya　　　　　　　　　　Summer grasses,

tsuwamono domo ga　　　　　All that remains

yume no ato 　　　　　　　　　　Of soldiers' dreams
Matsuo Bashō　　　　　　　　　(trans. Lucien Stryk)