Kanji finder

[Grey Doffin]

Hi guys,

I am busy these days adding Knaji to the online version of my "Index of Japanese Sword Literature". I'm using the language bar of Windows XP to place the Kanji in the names of the 3,000 or so swordsmiths included. Most of the time I can type in the romanji for the smith's name and get a list of Kanji that includes the one I need. In some instances the Kanji I need isn't included under it's Romanji and I have to type in Romanji for another reading of the Kanji to get what I want. For instance, I type in tsutsumu to get 包, for Kane, since typing Kane doesn't work.

In rare instances, none of the readings I have in my 2 Kanji dictionaries (Koop & Inada and Nelson's) elicit the Kanji I want; no matter which of the readings I try the desired Kanji won't appear (How can there be 405 ways to write 'Kou' in Japanese and none of them being the one I need?). Do any of you have a suggestion? Perhaps an online dictionary, similar to Nelson's with Kanji and Romanji readings, but with different readings? Is there an older dictionary that might have older readings for the Kanji? I don't read Japanese other than sword signatures so any reference will have to provide Romanji. If necessary I can live with the index being 99% complete but it would be nice to get those last few.

By the way, I'm about 1 week away from letting everyone have at it. Once the Kanji are in it's open to all.

Grey

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Grey. How many to go now?

 

If your fonts are limited, you could try posting here with an explanation of the bits you want to put together, and perhaps one of the two experts Messers Moriyama/Morita can help you by posting some cut-and-pastable examples for you here.

 

I usually keep a Kanji Gen to hand as it shows the old forms of the characters, and a similar function Chinese dictionery. Doesn't help if the computer won't produce it though..

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Piers,

I'm up to about 1,800 of 3,250 or so. Most of them go quick but some can take 10 or 15 minutes per Kanji. Gendai smiths are particularly troublesome; did they have contests to find the most obscure Kanji?

When I get to the end, if I haven't been able to fill in everything, I will post here hoping for examples I can copy and paste.

Grey

[Guido]

Grey, if you're using MS Japanese IME, click on the "IME Pad" (next to the button for "conversion mode"). You can select searching by stroke count, radicals, and even do your own handwriting recognition. No shame in the latter, even my Japanese colleagues use it all the time!

[Pete Klein]

I use this all the time:

 

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi- ... dic.cgi?1R

[kazarena]

Hi Grey,

 

I'm also using Jim Breen's online dictionary mentioned before.

 

I can compile an Excel spreadsheet for you with romaji smith names vs. kanji names vs. Hawley IDs, if it helps. I'm also using another spreadsheet which only contains single kanji vs. romaji. It's pretty easy to use.

 

PM me if interested.

 

Regards,

Stan