Mystery Kanij (somewhat OT)

[Kevin Steinbach]

I'm reading an author's autobiography, and she says the following of her parents ("xx" where the mystery kanji is):

私の両親は文字通りのそれで、格好の組合わせであった筈だが、その生涯を見ると、(xx) ほどのこともない。

The kanji in question looks almost exactly like 諺（ことわざ）, but on the top right, instead of 立 there is 文.  I checked Kanjigen and WWWJDIC, but didn't come up with anything.  Does anyone know what this character might be?

a good (almost-)weekend to all,


Kevin Steinbach

[Mika Jarmusz]

Kevin,

If it does have 文, it must be ことわざ？
Is "xx" a single character?  I'm guessing that there's a ことわざ in the preceding text?



Mika Jarmusz 清水美香
       English to Japanese Translator
       http://inJapanese.us

[Marc Adler]

2009/11/20 Kevin Steinbach <loth...@gmail.com>

 

The kanji in question looks almost exactly like 諺（ことわざ）, but on the top right, instead of

If you look very closely at the character you included in your text here, you'll notice that it's 文 at the top right.

Here it is enlarged: 諺

--
Marc Adler
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[Mika Jarmusz]

ついでですので続けますね。文字通りの「それ」とは諺（またはその登場キャラクター）だと思いますが、
どんな諺なのか、ちょっと気になっちゃいます。

[Tom Donahue]

Kevin Steinbach writes:

> The kanji in question looks almost exactly like 諺（ことわざ）, but on the top
> right, instead of 立 there is 文.

Of the fonts on my PC, the Japanese and simplified Chinese fonts display
諺 with 立. The Korean and traditional Chinese fonts and Arial Unicode
display it with 文.

So my guess is, same character with the display depending on the font.

--
Tom Donahue

[Kevin Steinbach]

Thanks all for your informative comments.

Alan, the book is Setouchi Jakuchou's autobiography (「人が好き」・瀬戸内寂聴著).  The initial date of publication is 1995, though the edition I'm reading is from 2005.  The first page you linked to gives Feb. 2004 as the date of the introduction of this new character set, so it's just possible that the book (it's published by 講談社文庫) uses the new standard.

Marc: the character you offer still displays with 立 for me; it sounds like Tom and I are in the same boat.  (For that matter, Alan's Glyphwiki link indicates that the character will display with 立 in my browser.)  The large character Mika included in her first message is the one (with 文) that appears in the book.

And the ことわざ by which Setouchi characterizes her parents is 東男に京女, though she adds that on their home island of Shikoku the expression is 讃岐男に阿波女。She writes (I summarize) that her father was a self-made man and her mother the neice of a local 大家. I haven't had a chance to read further, but it must turn out that the two were not as well-matched as the proverb suggests.


Kevin

[Mark Spahn]

I'm reading an author's autobiography [(「人が好き」・瀬戸内寂聴著)], and she says the following of her parents ("xx" where the mystery kanji is):

==UNQUOTE==

 

Kevin,

I ignored this topic until the author's name gave me a start,

but it looks like this is nothing more mysterious that two

versions of the same kanji.  Checking in S&H, under 7a9.15

is the entry

     諺　諺　 GEN kotowaza    proverb

The first version has 文 in the upper right, and

the variant has 立 in the upper right.

Presumably these two variants could be found also in any

other kanji dictionary that includes pre-WW2 kanji variants.

-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY)

 

[Peter Tuffley]

On 21/11/2009, at 11:59 AM, Tom Donahue wrote:

>>
>
> Of the fonts on my PC, the Japanese and simplified Chinese fonts
> display
> 諺 with 立. The Korean and traditional Chinese fonts
> and Arial Unicode
> display it with 文.
>
> So my guess is, same character with the display depending on the font.
>
> --

My hard-copy Shuueisha Kanwa Koujiten has the form with 文 for
"kotowaza" but in a footnote gives the
form with 立 as the Chinese form.

My hard-copy Kojien also gives the form with 文 for "kotowaza"

FWIW

Peter

[Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven]

-On [20091121 01:49], Kevin Steinbach (loth...@gmail.com) wrote:
>Marc: the character you offer still displays with 立 for me; it sounds like Tom
>and I are in the same boat. (For that matter, Alan's Glyphwiki link indicates
>that the character will display with 立 in my browser.) The large character
>Mika included in her first message is the one (with 文) that appears in the
>book.

Simple actually, given the fact that the message is in a Japanese encoding,
you are bound to see the Japanese fonts being used for said codepoint.

Switch to something like GB 18030 and I am sure you would see a different
font being used and as such also a different glyph being shown.

--
Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven <asmodai(-at-)in-nomine.org> / asmodai
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Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions
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