Jungshik Shin wrote: [Dan Kogai] > > Dan the Man whose Name was Compromised by the Japanese > government (*) > > > > (*) My parents wanted me to name me 彈 (U+5F48), a classical > > form, but it was not listed on "the table of Kanjis allowed > > for names" so I was named U+5F3E. > > Frankly speaking, I find it rather hard to understand what > difference there is between using U+5F48 and using U+5F3E in > spelling your name. They're the same character with the same > meaning but with a bit of variation in shape. However, I > should be careful because this is about one's name.
A Japanese lady explained me that traditionalist Japanese parents first choose the *sound* of their child name on their own, then consult a fortune teller to decide which kanji to use. The fortune teller performs a magical calculus involving astrological as well as *graphological* factors, such as the stroke counts of the kanji. The kanji are carefully chosen in order for the resulting number to be auspicious. This explains why there are so many variants of kanji used in person's names: in order to keep the name both pretty, simple, and auspicious, fortune tellers did not hesitate to invent non standard stroke counts and orders. I guess that these divinatory practices are not much important in today's Japan: but the lady who told me this story was very irritated with her parents (both scientists and skeptical...) who didn't care that her name had an inauspicious stroke count. I guess that before blaming Japanese people for being so fond of the precise strokes contained in their name's kanji, we should ask ourselves why, on Western airplanes, after seat row 16 comes row 18... (the roman numeral XVII is an anagram of the Latin word "VIXI" = "I was alive"). _ Marco
