Have you ever seen Ukiyo-e before? If you
have seen it, and also if you know Japanese letters, you might have been told
that the letters on Ukiyo-e are different from modern Japanese letters.
The letters on Ukiyo-e are mostly written
in Hiragana and a bit of Kanji.
I have a question.
Do you think Japanese people
can read the sentences in Ukiyo-e?
The answer is no.
Almost everyone can't read
it. The reason for this is not because it's cursive, but because it used "変体仮名". Hentai gana, the meaning is not what you think it means. If it's translated it
may be called "alternative hiragana" or "another type of hiragana"
.
Everyone, including Japanese people, learn 50 Hiragana letters when they start to learn
Japanese. However, each Hiragana had 3 or more letters until quite recently. For
example, please see picture#2. The four Hiragana letters are all read as "た".
Hentai gana was integrated into the Hiragana that
we know about 100 years ago, so almost all Japanese don't know what letters in
Ukiyo-e are because they don't learn them in school. Wow, it's a pity. They
should have taught me. Actually, it's complicated and they are not used nowadays, so I don't recommend that you
try to learn Hentai gana unless you are interested in reading original Japanese
old documents. However, I want to be able to read them smoothly.
For your information the Ukiyo-e above says
following.
The only Kanji in the picture are 人 and 大, but they are hard to read.
みかけはこはいが とんだいいひとだ
大ぜいの人がよつて たかつて
とふと いゝ人を こしらへた
とかく人のことは 人にしてもらはねば
いい人にはならぬ
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/96058/
(He looks fierce, but he is really a nice person)
(He looks fierce, but he is really a nice person)
Thanks Bri!
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