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103-587: Masamune is believed to have worked in Sagami Province during the last part of the Kamakura period (1288–1328), and it is thought that he was trained by swordsmiths from Bizen and Yamashiro provinces, such as Saburo Kunimune, Awataguchi Kunitsuna and Shintōgo Kunimitsu . He was the father of Hikoshiro Sadamune , also a famous Sōshū master. An award for swordsmiths called the Masamune Prize

206-413: A kun -reading) ; kun -only are common for Japanese-coined kanji ( kokuji ). Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example is 生 , which is read as sei , shō , nama , ki , o-u , i-kiru , i-kasu , i-keru , u-mu , u-mareru , ha-eru , and ha-yasu , totaling eight basic readings (the first two are on , while

309-544: A ⟨g⟩ element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji. The g stands for gaiji . There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten , which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. The Zhonghua Zihai , published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but

412-512: A Japanese cooking knife . One of the three blades has a gomabashi in cutout ( sukashi ). It was restored around 1919 and sold for approximately 10 hiki (a certain number of mon ); this was worth roughly 14¢ US at the time, meaning that the price was remarkably low. All three have been displayed within the Tokugawa Art Museum . All three have been designated National Treasures. Kotegiri means "Kote cutter". In this case kote

515-537: A "faraway country" (遠国, ongoku ), in terms of distance from the capital. It was also included as one of the Tōkaidō provinces and was governed by a Kuni no miyatsuko . Samukawa jinja was designated as the chief Shinto shrine ( ichinomiya ) for the province. Records of Sagami during the Heian period are sparse, but during this period large shōen controlled by various warrior-class clans developed. The Miura clan

618-737: A label for its sound), kanji are also called mana ( 真名 , literally "true name", in reference to the character being used as a label for its meaning). In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usually content words such as nouns , adjective stems , and verb stems ), while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings, phonetic complements to disambiguate readings ( okurigana ), particles , and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji are considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember. Katakana are mostly used for representing onomatopoeia , non-Japanese loanwords (except those borrowed from ancient Chinese ),

721-454: A long gairaigo word may be the reading (this is classed as kun'yomi —see single character gairaigo , below)—the character 糎 has the seven kana reading センチメートル senchimētoru "centimeter", though it is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space); another common example is '%' (the percent sign), which has the five kana reading パーセント pāsento . There are many kanji compounds that use

824-614: A mixture of on'yomi and kun'yomi , known as jūbako ( 重箱 , multi-layered food box) or yutō ( 湯桶 , hot liquid pail) words (depending on the order), which are themselves examples of this kind of compound (they are autological words ): the first character of jūbako is read using on'yomi , the second kun'yomi ( on-kun , Japanese : 重箱読み ). It is the other way around with yu-tō ( kun-on , Japanese : 湯桶読み ). Formally, these are referred to as jūbako-yomi ( 重箱読み , jūbako reading) and yutō-yomi ( 湯桶読み , yutō reading) . In both these words,

927-430: A new kanji spelling is produced. Most often the word is a noun, which may be a simple noun (not a compound or derived from a verb), or may be a verb form or a fusional pronunciation. For example, the word 相撲 ( sumō , “ sumo ”) is originally from the verb 争う ( sumau , “to vie, to compete”), while 今日 ( kyō , “today”) is fusional (from older ke , “this” + fu , “day”). In rare cases, jukujikun

1030-520: A number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Man'yōgana written in cursive style evolved into hiragana (literally "fluttering kana " in reference to the motion of the brush during cursive writing), or onna-de , that is, "ladies' hand", a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education ). Major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in hiragana . Katakana (literally "partial kana ", in reference to

1133-642: A prize. The blade had a number of chips from the great battle but was still usable. It was kept by Shigenaga until he was sent to Fushimi Castle around 1592. Shigenaga was later forced to sell the sword to Toyotomi Hidetsugu , Toyotomi Hideyoshi's nephew and retainer. It was bought for 13 Mai, 13 ōban , which was 13 large gold coins. The blade was later valued in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho at 1,000 Mai. It then went to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Shimazu Yoshihiro , again to Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu , Tokugawa Yorinobu , and finally Tokugawa Ietsuna . It remained in

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1236-534: A problem for information interchange, as the code point used to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another. Gaiji were nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940. JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated to gaiji , making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved to Unicode negating

1339-994: A sharp edge allowing it to be useful for slashing also. A peculiar work of Masamune, once in the possession of the Tokugawa Shogunate through the Kii Domain and gifted to the main Tokugawa family line in Edo in its prime. It is designated as an Important Art Object . Upon the end of the Tokugawa Era marked by the Bakumatsu , the Musashi Masamune was presented as a gift by Tokugawa Iesato in honor of Yamaoka Tesshū 's efforts to facilitate peaceful negotiation with Katsu Kaishū to Saigō Takamori , sparing Edo from war and needless destruction; however, Yamaoka

1442-450: A surname). This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example when 黄金虫 , normally read as koganemushi , is shortened to kogane in 黒黄金虫 kurokogane , although zoological names are commonly spelled with katakana rather than with kanji. Outside zoology, this type of shortening only occurs on a handful of words, for example 大元帥 daigen(sui) , or

1545-696: A total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society. In 1946, after World War II and under the Allied Occupation of Japan , the Japanese government, guided by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers , instituted a series of orthographic reforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals. The number of characters in circulation

1648-427: Is jukujikun for tonakai , from Ainu, but the on'yomi reading of junroku is also used. In some cases, Japanese coinages have subsequently been borrowed back into Chinese , such as 鮟鱇 ( ankō , “ monkfish ”). The underlying word for jukujikun is a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (either kun'yomi or ateji ) or for which

1751-575: Is a contraction of yugote (弓籠手), an archer's arm-guard . This name comes from when Asakura Ujikage cut an opposing samurai's yugote in the battle of Toji in Kyôto . Oda Nobunaga gained possession of this sword and had it shortened to its present length. In 1615, it passed down to the Maeda clan who in 1882 presented it as a gift to Emperor Meiji , a known sword collector. A Masamune was given to President Harry S. Truman shortly after World War II. It

1854-455: Is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or yamato kotoba , that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. As with on'yomi , there can be multiple kun'yomi for the same kanji, and some kanji have no kun'yomi at all. Ateji ( 当て字 ) are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation

1957-534: Is also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectional jukujikun is the adjective 可愛い ( kawai-i , “cute”), originally kawafayu-i ; the word ( 可愛 ) is used in Chinese , but the corresponding on'yomi is not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be either 相応しい ( fusawa-shii , as jukujikun ) or 相応 ( sōō , as on'yomi ). Which reading to use can be discerned by

2060-482: Is also influenced by the Soden Bizen(備前) and Iwami province (石州) style. Many of his forged tachi were later made into katana by cutting the tang ( nakago ). For this reason, his only existing works are katana , tantō , and wakizashi . Thus, cutting the tang of an old tachi and making it into a katana according to the popularity of the katana was called suriage , which was common in Japanese history. Of

2163-562: Is awarded at the Japanese Sword Making Competition. Although not awarded every year, it is presented to a swordsmith who has created an exceptional work. The swords of Masamune possess a reputation for superior beauty and quality, remarkable in a period where the steel necessary for swords was often impure. He is considered to have brought to perfection the art of " nie " ( 錵 , martensitic crystals embedded in pearlite matrix , thought to resemble stars in

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2266-476: Is believed to have trained a great number of sword smiths; 15 are known, 10 of whom are considered to be the Juttetsu or "Ten Famous Students" or "10 Great Disciples of Masamune". (備州長船住長義作—Bishu Osafune Ju Nagayoshi Saku) (備州國長船住長義—Bizen Kuni Osafune Ju Nagayoshi) Although probably not a direct student of Masamune because of the dates when he was forging, his works are greatly influenced by Masamune's work and

2369-549: Is considered Japan's most famous swordsman. The sword is classified as a meibutsu . In 2000, this sword was acquired by the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords with the assistance of Motoo Otsuyasu. The "Hōchō" Masamune refers to any one of three particular and unusual tantō attributed to Masamune. These tantō have a wide body, unlike his normal slim and elegant work, making them appear quite similar to

2472-567: Is determined by contextual cues (such as whether the character represents part of a compound word versus an independent word), the exact intended meaning of the word, and its position within the sentence. For example, 今日 is mostly read kyō , meaning "today", but in formal writing it is instead read konnichi , meaning "nowadays", which is understood from context. Furigana is used to specify ambiguous readings, such as rare, literary, or otherwise non-standard readings. This ambiguity may arise due to more than one reading becoming activated in

2575-569: Is kept in the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum . Nuttall, Zelia. "The Earliest Historical Relations between Mexico and Japan, from original documents preserved in Spain and Japan". (1906) https://archive.org/details/earliesthistoric00nuttrich Sagami Province Sagami Province ( 相模国 , Sagami no kuni ) was a province of Japan located in what is today the central and western Kanagawa Prefecture . Sagami Province bordered

2678-529: Is perhaps the best known Masamune sword. Signed works of Masamune are rare. The examples "Fudo Masamune", "Kyōgoku Masamune", and "Daikoku Masamune" are accepted as his genuine works. Judging from his style, he was active from the late Kamakura period to the Nanboku-chō period . His swords are the most frequently cited among those listed in the Kyōho Meibutsu Cho , a catalogue of excellent swords in

2781-686: Is pronounced in on'yomi . He is also known as Kaneshige using the Japanese pronunciation of his name. He and Kaneuji are founders of the Mino style. He was a monk at the Seisen-ji in Tsuruga and led to the creation of Echizen swordmaking like Kuniyuki, moving to Mino around the time of Ryakuo (1338–1342) creating the Seki tradition. (長谷部国重—Hasebe Kunishige) Created the Hasebe school producing swords in

2884-953: Is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form of ateji , narrowly jukujikun ). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also special cases where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading. The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in Chinese varieties , where there are literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters —borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus form doublets and are generally similar, analogous to different on'yomi , reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese. Longer readings exist for non- Jōyō characters and non-kanji symbols, where

2987-526: The Nihon Shoki and Kojiki , a semi-legendary scholar called Wani was dispatched to Japan by the (Korean) Kingdom of Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters. The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court. For example,

3090-406: The kyōiku kanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given furigana . The jōyō kanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the tōyō kanji ( 当用漢字 , general-use kanji) , introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, the jōyō kanji list

3193-474: The on'yomi has a long vowel; long vowels in Japanese generally are derived from sound changes common to loans from Chinese, hence distinctive of on'yomi . These are the Japanese form of hybrid words . Other examples include basho ( 場所 , "place", kun-on , 湯桶読み ) , kin'iro ( 金色 , "golden", on-kun , 重箱読み ) and aikidō ( 合気道 , the martial art Aikido ", kun-on-on , 湯桶読み ) . Ateji often use mixed readings. For instance,

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3296-655: The Latin alphabet , Cyrillic script , Greek alphabet , Arabic numerals , etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are: Gaiji ( 外字 , literally "external characters") are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese encoding systems . These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventional glyph in reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well. Gaiji can be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products. Both are

3399-642: The Taihō Code . The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Although remnants from the Japanese Paleolithic and Yayoi periods are scarce, remains from the Jōmon period are relatively plentiful. Kofun period remains are generally from the 1st to the 4th century AD. Whether or not Sagami was originally part of Musashi prior to the Nara period is still a topic of controversy. The original capital of

3502-677: The Treaty of Kanagawa , which opened Sagami to foreign visitation and led to the rapid development of Yokohama as a treaty port . After the Meiji Restoration , Sagami Province was reorganized in 1871 into Odarawa, Ongino-Yamanaka, Karasuyama, Mito, Sakura, Oyumi, Mutsuura and Nishi-Ohira Prefectures. All for former Sagami Province became part of the new Kanagawa Prefecture in 1876. [REDACTED] Media related to Sagami Province at Wikimedia Commons Kanji Kanji ( 漢字 , Japanese pronunciation: [kaɲdʑi] ) are

3605-455: The logographic Chinese characters adapted from the Chinese script used in the writing of Japanese . They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of hiragana and katakana . The characters have Japanese pronunciations ; most have two, with one based on

3708-402: The shōgun or emperor, and the finished swords were held in a waterfall. The result is the same as the other stories, and Masamune's swords are deemed holy swords. In one version of the story, Muramasa is killed for creating evil swords. While all known legends of the two ever having met are historically impossible, both smiths are widely regarded as symbols for their respective eras. Masamune

3811-580: The 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as the gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō ( 学年別漢字配当表 ) , or the gakushū kanji ( 学習漢字 ) . This list of kanji is maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education and prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade. The jōyō kanji ( 常用漢字 , regular-use kanji) are 2,136 characters consisting of all

3914-498: The 5th century AD and has since had a profound influence in shaping Japanese culture, language, literature, history, and records. Inkstone artifacts at archaeological sites dating back to the earlier Yayoi period were also found to contain Chinese characters. Although some characters, as used in Japanese and Chinese, have similar meanings and pronunciations, others have meanings or pronunciations that are unique to one language or

4017-434: The 7th century, a record of trading for cloth and salt. The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during the Heian period (794–1185), a system known as kanbun emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to read Chinese sentences and restructure them into Japanese on

4120-615: The Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. There also exist kanji created by the Japanese and given an on'yomi reading despite not being a Chinese-derived or a Chinese-originating character. Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple on'yomi , and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan ( kokuji ) would not normally be expected to have on'yomi , but there are exceptions, such as

4223-477: The Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After the Meiji Restoration , Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai , by a process similar to China 's simplification efforts , with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct

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4326-827: The Foreign Liquidation Commission. Tokugawa Iemasa turned in the Honjō Masamune and 13 other "prized heirloom" swords to a police station at Mejiro in December 1945. In January 1946, the Mejiro police gave the swords to a man identified as "Sgt. Coldy Bimore" (possibly a garbled phonetic spelling of the man's name) of the Foreign Liquidations Commission of AFWESPAC (Army Forces, Western Pacific). In an episode of Expedition Unknown , Josh Gates traveled to Japan in search of

4429-443: The Honjō Masamune and learned that there were no records of a "Sgt. Coldy Bimore" listed to have received the sword. The Honjō Masamune is the most important of the missing Japanese swords, and its current location remains unknown. Only vague theories exist as to the location of the sword. This is one of the few blades signed by Masamune that is not in question as to the signature. It is designated as an Important Cultural Property. It

4532-419: The Japanese court. In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, called mokkan ( 木簡 ). These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far were written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to

4635-573: The Kii (紀伊) branch of the Tokugawa family , and this ownership continued after the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1868). The last known owner was Tokugawa Iemasa at the end of World War II. Under the United States occupation at the end of World War II, all production of nihontō with edges was banned except under police or government permit. The Americans required that all swords be surrendered to

4738-672: The Shogunate capital. However, the 1703 Genroku earthquake caused severe damage to Odawara , destroying much of Odawara-juku . This was followed by further natural disasters, including the October 4, 1707 Hōei earthquake and the Hōei eruption of Mount Fuji in December of the same year. During the Bakumatsu period , Kurihama in southern Miura Peninsula was the location of the first landing of American Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his fleet of black ships in 1853, which led eventually to

4841-650: The Soshu tradition as well as the work of the Soden Bizen swordsmiths. Though the kanji characters are pronounced in Japanese as 'Nagayoshi', by convention the on'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) pronunciation of 'Chogi' is used for this smith and a handful of others (less commonly for his student Kanenaga, pronounced in on'yomi as 'Kencho'). (備前國長船住兼光—Bizen Kuni Osafune Ju Kanemitsu) (備前長船住兼光—Bishu Osafune ju Kanemitsu) (備前國長船住左衛門尉藤原兼光—Bizen no Kuni Osafune ju Saemonjo Fujiwara Kanemitsu) Considered to have created some of

4944-467: The Soshu, crafting swords in addition to serving himself as a leader in the Soden Bizen revolution. (兼氏—Kaneuji) Lived in Yamato province before going to Mino to study under Masamune where his style radically changed. His swords are most like those of Masamune and quite often confused with his. The Mishina school can trace its history back to Kaneuji and Masamune. (金重) Kinju, like Chogi, by convention

5047-548: The Tokugawa shogunate, ruled though a number of hatamoto administrators. A number of feudal domains from outside Sagami Province also had small scattered holdings within the province. During the Edo period , Sagami prospered due to its location on the Tōkaidō road connecting Edo with Kyoto , and numerous post towns developed. Uraga , at the entrance to Edo Bay was a major maritime security checkpoint for ships entering or leaving

5150-476: The air hissed as it gently blew by the blade. After a while, Muramasa began to scoff at his master for his apparent lack of skill in the making of his sword. Smiling to himself, Masamune pulled up his sword, dried it, and sheathed it. All the while, Muramasa was heckling him for his sword's inability to cut anything. A monk, who had been watching the whole ordeal, walked over and bowed low to the two swordmasters. He then began to explain what he had seen. The first of

5253-539: The back and a dragon at the ura part of blade ( kurikara 倶利伽羅). The blade features an engraving of Fudō Myō-ō , the Buddhist deity which gives this blade its name. The Fudo Masamune is one of the few surviving blades that is known for sure to have been made and signed by the swordsmith and from the early 1600s, it was in the possession of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan. It is a made primarily for stabbing but with

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5356-417: The brain. Kanji readings are categorized as either on'yomi ( 音読み , literally "sound reading" ) , from Chinese, or kun'yomi ( 訓読み , literally "meaning reading" ) , native Japanese, and most characters have at least two readings—at least one of each. However, some characters have only a single reading, such as kiku ( 菊 , "chrysanthemum", an on -reading) or iwashi ( 鰯 , "sardine",

5459-687: The broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such as 今日的 ("present-day"), although in the phrase konnichi wa ("good day"), konnichi is typically spelled wholly with hiragana rather than with the kanji 今日 . Jukujikun are primarily used for some native Japanese words, such as Yamato ( 大和 or 倭 , the name of the dominant ethnic group of Japan, a former Japanese province as well as ancient name for Japan), and for some old borrowings, such as 柳葉魚 ( shishamo , literally "willow leaf fish") from Ainu, 煙草 ( tabako , literally “smoke grass”) from Portuguese, or 麦酒 ( bīru , literally “wheat alcohol”) from Dutch, especially if

5562-400: The character 働 "to work", which has the kun'yomi " hatara(ku) " and the on'yomi " dō ", and 腺 "gland", which has only the on'yomi " sen "—in both cases these come from the on'yomi of the phonetic component, respectively 動 " dō " and 泉 " sen ". The kun'yomi ( 訓読み , [kɯɰ̃jomi] , lit. "meaning reading") , the native reading,

5665-551: The characteristics of Masamune's signature features; though it is debated that its o-kissaki is not that of his style, it is compared to blades made in his later career, which shows the transition of the Kamakura styles into the Nanbokucho era. It is rumored that, while the blade is named after Musashi Province , where Edo and current day Tokyo stands, its origin stems from being once in the possession of Miyamoto Musashi , who

5768-431: The characters' individual on'yomi or kun'yomi . From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as a nankun ( 難訓 , "difficult reading") , and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character. Gikun are other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is reading 寒 (meaning "cold") as fuyu ("winter") rather than

5871-514: The characters, and only infrequently as konchō , the on'yomi of the characters. The most common reading is kesa , a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a single morpheme , or as a compound of ke (“this”, as in kefu , the older reading for 今日 , “today”), and asa , “morning”. Likewise, 今日 ("today") is also jukujikun , usually read with the native reading kyō ; its on'yomi , konnichi , does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in

5974-454: The city of Sapporo ( サッポロ ), whose name derives from the Ainu language and has no meaning in Japanese, is written with the on-kun compound [札幌] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |4= ( help ) (which includes sokuon as if it were a purely on compound). Gikun ( 義訓 ) and jukujikun ( 熟字訓 ) are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to

6077-829: The collections of daimyō edited during the Kyōhō era by the Hon'ami family of sword appraisers and polishers. The catalogue was created on the orders of the Tokugawa Yoshimune of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1714 and consists of three books. The first book, known as the Nihon Sansaku , is a list of the three greatest swordsmiths in the eyes of Toyotomi Hideyoshi , including Etchu Matsukura Go Umanosuke Yoshihiro, Awataguchi Toshiro Yoshimitsu, and lists forty-one blades by Masamune. The three books together list sixty-one blades by Masamune. There are far more blades listed for Masamune than

6180-435: The diplomatic correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 AD has been praised for its skillful use of allusion . Later, groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read and write Classical Chinese . During the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at

6283-618: The education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communication . The term kanji in Japanese literally means " Han characters". It is written in Japanese by using the same characters as in traditional Chinese , and both refer to the character writing system known in Chinese as hanzi ( traditional Chinese : 漢字 ; simplified Chinese : 汉字 ; pinyin : hànzì ; lit. ' Han characters'). The significant use of Chinese characters in Japan first began to take hold around

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6386-574: The entire word—rather than each part of the word being centered over its corresponding character, as is often done for the usual phono-semantic readings. Broadly speaking, jukujikun can be considered a form of ateji , though in narrow usage, " ateji " refers specifically to using characters for sound and not meaning (sound-spelling), whereas " jukujikun " refers to using characters for their meaning and not sound (meaning-spelling). Many jukujikun (established meaning-spellings) began as gikun (improvised meaning-spellings). Occasionally,

6489-480: The existing Masamune swords, four katana and five tantō are designated as National Treasures , while six katana , three tantō , and one wakizashi are designated as Important Cultural Properties . Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, the basis for the current designation of cultural properties as National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, was enacted in 1950, so the Honjō Masamune, which

6592-530: The first two letters of his given name. Considered by some to be one of the greatest of Masamune's students. As well as being a Soshu swordsmith he also created the Chikuzen tradition. (則重—Norishige, 佐伯—Saeki) Historically considered one of the best of Masamune's students, he is numbered among the Juttetsu. However, current research indicates that he was a senior student to Masamune, junior to Yukimitsu, under

6695-462: The fly, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar . This was essentially a kind of codified sight translation . Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacular Japanese language , resulting in the modern kana syllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system called man'yōgana (used in the ancient poetry anthology Man'yōshū ) evolved that used

6798-420: The grain pattern in the steel above the hamon), kinsuji (lightning shaped lines of nie), and nie (crystals of martensite embedded in a pearlite matrix). Swords created by Masamune often are referred to with the smith's name (as with other pieces of artwork) and often with a name for the individual sword as well. The "Honjo Masamune", a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate and passed down from shōgun to shōgun,

6901-413: The great teacher Shintōgo Kunimitsu. He, like Go, hailed from Etchu province and is well known as the only smith to have mastered the style of matsukawa-hada (pine tree bark pattern steel), making his work unique. (郷(江)—Go, 義弘—Yoshihiro) Very few works exist by this swordsmith because of his death at age 27. No known signed works exist. He is believed to have gone by the name of Go Yoshihiro or simply Go,

7004-433: The historical male name suffix 右衛門 -emon , which was shortened from the word uemon . The kanji compound for jukujikun is often idiosyncratic and created for the word, and there is no corresponding Chinese word with that spelling. In other cases, a kanji compound for an existing Chinese word is reused, where the Chinese word and on'yomi may or may not be used in Japanese. For example, 馴鹿 (“reindeer”)

7107-412: The limitation of kanji. After the Meiji Restoration and as Japan entered an era of active exchange with foreign countries, the need for script reform in Japan began to be called for. Some scholars argued for the abolition of kanji and the writing of Japanese using only kana or Latin characters. However, these views were not so widespread. However, the need to limit the number of kanji characters

7210-705: The majority of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or archaic forms. A list of 2,136 jōyō kanji is regarded as necessary for functional literacy in Japanese. Approximately a thousand more characters are commonly used and readily understood by the majority in Japan and a few thousand more find occasional use, particularly in specialized fields of study but those may be obscure to most out of context. A total of 13,108 characters can be encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji . Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words or morphemes , leading to different pronunciations or "readings." The correct reading

7313-595: The name of the town from which he came. As well as being a Soshu swordsmith he is a member of the Etchu tradition. He is considered to have the highest skill in forging swords among the Masamune Juttetsu [1] . (石州出羽直綱作—Sekishu Izuwa Naotsuna Saku) (直綱作—Naotsuna Saku) Many theories exist that he may in fact have been a student of Saemonzaburo among others. His work is considered by many to have been influenced by Soshu(相州) even if not taught by Masamune directly, he

7416-437: The names of plants and animals (with exceptions), and for emphasis on certain words. Since ancient times, there has been a strong opinion in Japan that kanji is the orthodox form of writing, but there were also people who argued against it. Kamo no Mabuchi , a scholar of the Edo period , criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters in kana characters and argued for

7519-407: The need for gaiji for most users. Nevertheless, they persist today in Japan's three major mobile phone information portals, where they are used for emoji (pictorial characters). Unicode allows for optional encoding of gaiji in private use areas , while Adobe's SING (Smart INdependent Glyphlets) technology allows the creation of customized gaiji. The Text Encoding Initiative uses

7622-437: The next two swordsmiths combined. It is known that Hideyoshi had a passion for Soshu swordsmiths which may explain this. A third of all swords listed are Soshu blades by many of the greatest Soshu masters, including Masamune's students. A legend tells of a test where Muramasa challenged his master, Masamune, to see who could make a finer sword. They both worked tirelessly, and when both swords were finished, they decided to test

7725-522: The night sky) . Masamune studied under Shintōgo Kunimitsu and made blades in suguha (straight temper line), but he made notare hamon , where the finish on the leading edge of blade slowly undulates where it was quenched . There are also some blades with ko-midare (small irregularities), a style which appears to have been copied from the Old Bizen and Hōki Province styles. His works are well-characterized by striking chikei (dark lines following

7828-604: The original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the term jinmeiyō kanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both the jōyō and jinmeiyō lists combined. Hyōgai kanji ( 表外漢字 , "unlisted characters") are any kanji not contained in the jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, but extended shinjitai forms exist. The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and kana define character code-points for each kanji and kana , as well as other forms of writing such as

7931-485: The other. For example, 誠 means 'honest' in both languages but is pronounced makoto or sei in Japanese, and chéng in Standard Mandarin Chinese . Individual kanji characters and multi-kanji words invented in Japan from Chinese morphemes have been borrowed into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese in recent times. These are known as Wasei-kango , or Japanese-made Chinese words. For example,

8034-407: The practice of using a part of a kanji character) emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified man'yōgana to a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems, hiragana and katakana , referred to collectively as kana , are descended from kanji. In contrast with kana ( 仮名 , literally "borrowed name", in reference to the character being "borrowed" as

8137-594: The presence or absence of the -shii ending ( okurigana ). A common example of a verb with jukujikun is 流行る ( haya-ru , “to spread, to be in vogue”), corresponding to on'yomi 流行 ( ryūkō ). A sample jukujikun deverbal (noun derived from a verb form) is 強請 ( yusuri , “extortion”), from 強請る ( yusu-ru , “to extort”), spelling from 強請 ( kyōsei , “extortion”). Note that there are also compound verbs and, less commonly, compound adjectives, and while these may have multiple kanji without intervening characters, they are read using

8240-476: The province may have been located in what is now Hiratsuka , although other contenders include Ōiso and Ebina . Of all the former provinces of Japan, Sagami is the only in which the ruins of the Nara period capital have yet to be found. The Kokubun-ji is located in what is now Ebina. Under the Engishiki classification system, Sagami was ranked as a "major country" (上国, jōkoku ) in terms of importance and

8343-635: The provinces of Izu , Musashi , and Suruga . It had access to the Pacific Ocean through Sagami Bay . However, most of the present-day cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki , now part of Kanagawa Prefecture, were not in Sagami, but rather, in Musashi Province. Its abbreviated form name was Sōshū ( 相州 ) . Sagami was one of the original provinces of Japan established in the Nara period under

8446-402: The readings contradict the kanji), or clarification if the referent may not be obvious. Jukujikun are when the standard kanji for a word are related to the meaning, but not the sound. The word is pronounced as a whole, not corresponding to sounds of individual kanji. For example, 今朝 ("this morning") is jukujikun . This word is not read as *ima'asa , the expected kun'yomi of

8549-482: The rest are kun ), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct. The on'yomi ( 音読み , [oɰ̃jomi] , lit. "sound(-based) reading") , the Sino-Japanese reading, is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. It was often previously referred to as translation reading , as it was recreated readings of

8652-419: The results. The contest was for each to suspend the blades in a small creek with the cutting edge facing against the current. Muramasa's sword cut everything that passed its way; fish, leaves floating down the river, the very air which blew on it. Highly impressed with his pupil's work, Masamune lowered his sword into the current and waited patiently. Only leaves were cut. However, the fish swam right up to it, and

8755-540: The river's current equally well, but the leaves would stick to the blade of Muramasa whereas they would slip on past Masamune's after being sliced. Alternatively, both leaves were cut, but those cut by Masamune's blade would reform as it traveled down the stream. Yet another version has leaves being sliced by Muramasa's blade while the leaves were repelled by Masamune's, and another again has leaves being sliced by Muramasa's blade and healed by Masamune's. In yet another story Muramasa and Masamune were summoned to make swords for

8858-608: The rule of the Later Hōjō clan based at Odawara . After the defeat of the Later Hōjō clan at the hands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, Sagami was part of the territory in the Kantō region which came under the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu . With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate , the western portion of the province formed Odawara Domain , and the remainder of the province was tenryō territory under direct administrative control of

8961-469: The sharpest swords ever known, he is one of a handful of smiths rated at Sai-jo O-wazamono (grandmaster of great sharpness) with famous swords named Kabutowari (Helmet Cutter), Ishikiri (Stone Cutter), and Teppokiri (Gun Cutter) as relayed in Fujishiro's writings. Kanemitsu produced swords used by renowned men and generals. He likely was not taught directly by Masamune, however, but was influenced by

9064-575: The standard readings samu or kan , and instead of the usual spelling for fuyu of 冬 . Another example is using 煙草 (lit. "smoke grass") with the reading tabako ("tobacco") rather than the otherwise-expected readings of *kemuri-gusa or *ensō . Some of these, such as for tabako , have become lexicalized , but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided with furigana , gikun could be used to convey complex literary or poetic effect (especially if

9167-419: The story of Oda Nobunaga drawing it to cut through a table to kill Kannai, a tea master who betrayed him. (来源国次—Rai Minamoto Kunitsugu) Also goes by the name Kamakura Rai as he is the grandson of Rai Kuniyuki. The influence of the Soshu and Yamashiro traditions can be observed in his works. (左—Sa) (筑州左—Chikushu Sa) (筑前國住左—Chikuzen no Kuni ju Sa) Believed to go by the name Yasuyoshi but signed his work using

9270-563: The style of the second period of Soshu and Yamashiro. His swords are considered by some to be equal to Akihiro and Hiromitsu. He created the Heshikiri Hasebe (The Forceful Cutter) listed in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho, owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and then by Oda Nobunaga . It bears a gold appraisal inlay of Honami Kotoku called a Kinzogan (金象嵌). Today the sword is a family heirloom of the Kuroda Daimyō Ke. The sword takes its name from

9373-407: The swords was by all accounts a fine sword, however, it is a blood-thirsty, evil blade, as it does not discriminate as to who or what it will cut. It may just as well be cutting down butterflies as severing heads. The second was by far the finer of the two, as it does not needlessly cut that which is innocent and undeserving. In another account of the story, both blades cut the leaves that went down on

9476-411: The usual kun'yomi . Examples include 面白い ( omo-shiro-i , “interesting”, literally “face + white”) and 狡賢い ( zuru-gashiko-i , “sly”, lit. “cunning, crafty + clever, smart”). Typographically, the furigana for jukujikun are often written so they are centered across the entire word, or for inflectional words over the entire root—corresponding to the reading being related to

9579-623: The word for telephone , 電話 denwa in Japanese, was derived from the Chinese words for "electric" and "conversation." It was then calqued as diànhuà in Mandarin Chinese, điện thoại in Vietnamese and 전화 jeonhwa in Korean. Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China . The earliest known instance of such an import

9682-725: The word was borrowed before the Meiji period . Words whose kanji are jukujikun are often usually written as hiragana (if native), or katakana (if borrowed); some old borrowed words are also written as hiragana , especially Portuguese loanwords such as かるた ( karuta ) from Portuguese " carta " (English “card”) or てんぷら ( tempura ) from Portuguese " tempora " (English “times, season”), as well as たばこ ( tabako ). Sometimes, jukujikun can even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples being kera ( 啄木鳥 , “woodpecker”), gumi ( 胡頽子 , “silver berry, oleaster”), and Hozumi ( 八月朔日 ,

9785-421: Was a National Treasure under the old system and whose whereabouts were unknown before that time, is not included in the number of National Treasures. The Honjō Masamune represented the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period and was passed down from one shōgun to another. It is one of the best known of the swords created by Masamune and is believed to be among the finest Japanese swords ever made. It

9888-519: Was bought by Toyotomi Hidetsugu in 1601 for 500 Kan and was passed to Shōgun Ieyasu and from him to Maeda Toshiie . Maeda Toshitsune presented it again to the shōgun, possibly on his retirement. Later, the sword was handed down among the Owari Tokugawa . This blade is a tantō (dagger) approximately 25 cm (8 sun 6.5 bun) with a carving of roots on the omote (front, outer edge) side. It also has chopstick-like grooves (g omabashi 護摩箸) on

9991-475: Was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previously jinmeiyō kanji; some are used to write prefecture names: 阪 , 熊 , 奈 , 岡 , 鹿 , 梨 , 阜 , 埼 , 茨 , 栃 and 媛 . As of September 25, 2017, the jinmeiyō kanji ( 人名用漢字 , kanji for use in personal names) consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants of jōyō kanji. There were only 92 kanji in

10094-502: Was humbled upon being given such a masterpiece, and had passed it down to statesman Iwakura Tomomi . Soon after seeing it passed from hand to hand throughout the 20th Century, the Musashi Masamune finally made its way to the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai in the year 2000 by Motoo Otsuyasu. The Musashi Masamune is a tachi, measuring 74 cm (2 korai-shaku, 1 sun, 4.2 bun) and noted to have nearly all of

10197-405: Was made a Japanese National Treasure ( Kokuhō ) in 1939. The name Honjō probably came about by the sword's connection to General Honjō Shigenaga (1540–1614) who gained the sword after a battle in 1561. Shigenaga was attacked by Umanosuke who already possessed a number of trophy heads. Umanosuke struck Shigenaga with the Honjō Masamune which split his helmet, but he survived and took the sword as

10300-562: Was one of the most powerful of these clans. During the Kamakura period , Sagami was the center of the Kamakura shogunate , based in Kamakura , founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo and subsequently controlled by his former stewards, the Hōjō clan . The province came under the control of the Uesugi clan for much of the Sengoku period , and was a highly contested territory, before the consolidation under

10403-526: Was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Some characters were given simplified glyphs , called shinjitai ( 新字体 ) . Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged. These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known as hyōgaiji ( 表外字 ) . The kyōiku kanji ( 教育漢字 , lit. "education kanji") are

10506-550: Was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Wa emissary in 57 AD. Chinese coins as well as inkstones from the first century AD have also been found in Yayoi period archaeological sites. However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the fifth century AD, when writing in Japan became more widespread. According to

10609-639: Was understood, and in May 1923, the Japanese government announced 1,962 kanji characters for regular use. In 1940, the Japanese Army decided on the "Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names" ( 兵器名称用制限漢字表 , heiki meishō yō seigen kanji hyō ) which limited the number of kanji that could be used for weapons names to 1,235. In 1942, the National Language Council announced the "Standard Kanji Table" ( 標準漢字表 , hyōjun kanji-hyō ) with

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