Some Old Yet Simple Kanji

[Mike Cash]

I took this photo of the back of a tombstone in a small private cemetery in rural Nagano Prefecture just especially to share with the Japanese learners here. There are two kanji visible which were formerly in common use (at least in inscriptions) and which are no longer used. You should be able to figure out both their readings and their meanings purely from context if you have studied kanji even a little bit.

[phreadom]

I tried to clean the pic up a little Mike, but I'm not sure about some of the lower kanji due to my beginner level not being familiar enough with more than the elementary level kanji.

kanji4.png (49.56 KiB) Viewed 1503 times

Hopefully this might make it a little easier for people to read. Please let me know which ones I messed up.

[Hyperworm]

Spoiler:

Kanji for 20 and 30?
I think this has come up here in the past actually
20 here is different again to the form I knew of it (廿)...
And presumably the one at the top is a variant of 仝? (looks like ユ below instead of エ ...)

[Hektor6766]

Considering the context, I'd say the top one is an old form of 命.

[Mike Cash]

Thanks very much, Phreadom. That is an excellent job and I am sure it is much easier for people to make out than the photo. It was in a very difficult spot to try to get any photo of it at all....much less a good one.

I believe that I posted a photo containing one of the two kanji earlier this year or perhaps last year. But we get some new people coming in so I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it another go.

One of the points I wanted to make with this photo is that sometimes it is possible to figure out the meaning (and sometimes the reading) of kanji one has never seen before. I thought this would be a good sample to provide some learners with an opportunity to experience that for themselves.

[NileCat]

Considering the context, I'd say the top one is an old form of 命.

Correct answer is:

Spoiler:

仝 = 同　（どう）・・・古い漢字です。今は使われません。
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%9D
一番右の「明治」を繰り返して書くのと同じですね。

「明治　　　　　　～年」
「同じく（明治）　～年」
「同じく（明治）　～年」

[Hektor6766]

おっしゃりたいことは分かります。

[Mike Cash]

Considering the context, I'd say the top one is an old form of 命.

Correct answer is:

Spoiler:

仝 = 同　（どう）・・・古い漢字です。今は使われません。
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%9D
一番右の「明治」を繰り返して書くのと同じですね。

「明治　　　　　　～年」
「同じく（明治）　～年」
「同じく（明治）　～年」

It would be more accurate to say it is no longer in general use. I know I saw it on items produced for the funerals of my wife's parents. I doubt that it sees much (if any) use outside the funeral industry, though.