Kanji Art (pictures included)

[Killer Queen]

Now I know we've all seen the famous hiragana-man, but that's not what I'm talking about. Has anyone drawn a kanji character and then, by god, made a picture out of it?

Two nights ago in my Japanese class, we all got to go up to the dry-erase board and practice writing our chapter's kanji. Let me say, it was interesting to say the least.


Left-->Right: The proper writing; my friend's interpretation; one of those African flute guys; and SIMBA. For a further African feel.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/xxakemixx/kanjiart01.jpg

Self-explanation:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/xxakemixx/kanjiart04.jpg

Hidden meanings when drawing kanji goes horribly wrong?!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/xxakemixx/kanjiart02.jpg

Ah... the joys of Japanese class.

(Please excuse any weird-looking kanji. If I had really been writing them, I would have fixed it in my perfectionistic ways.)

[Vic_Rattlehead]

I really like that middle one! (father)

[Killer Queen]

Haha, yeah, I know. I and the guy next to me (who also contributed to the first one) were almost in tears the entire time.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

Haha, yeah, I know. I and the guy next to me (who also contributed to the first one) were almost in tears the entire time.

Being that it's 4am I feel I should provide some of my kanji and their bizzare transformations into post-renaissance masterpieces! Soon!

[Crowley]

Tatsuya Ishida does this sort of thing constantly. Man's a genius:

http://sinfest.net/d/20000217.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20000218.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20000913.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20000914.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20000915.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20010306.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20010307.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20010820.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20010821.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20020214.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20030219.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20030220.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20040510.html
http://sinfest.net/d/20040511.html

[Killer Queen]

Haha. That's effing amazing.

[Frankey-eh]

Crowley:
for 女, we learned it as ku no ichi（くノ一）in first grade

and these things, my chinese does a lot too
the latest one I remember is 賽. in chinese, this means competition
so here's the story:
a competition takes place in a building. so there's the 宀.
now, the competition is a tic-tac-toe. that's how you get the grid thing in the middle
then, you need judges. judges are stereotypically old, so you've got two mustache
finally, you need the award money, so you got 貝 or shells, since shells are old money

[Fish]

I actually know some of the kanji's original pictogram or the reason why the character is like that. I think I can contribute a bit. The comics got some of the kanji original pictogram right, the "Female", "Dragon" and "dog" characters. For the "male", you notice it's composed of "field" on the upper part and "force" on the lower part.... what it means is males have to work hard in the field. For the terms "heaven" and "hell", if you interpret it character by character, the "heaven" term actually means "kingdom of sky". The "hell" term actually means "jail of the (under)ground". The first post has the character "home", the upper part symbolize a roof and lower part actually was a ancient character for "pig". Given that China is a agricultural society, it is not hard to guess it means "home".

The "father one" might be right but the cross probably symbolize "human". For the "elder brother" character, I am sure the lower part is just a alternative symbol of "human" and the upper body is bigger and stronger, so it is your "elder brother". For the character "watching (looking)", the lower part is still a human, the upper part actually is the character of "eye". So when combined, it means someone is "looking". The eye character itself is a pictogram too, try turn the character 90 degree, do you see any eye? Somehow along the way, they erected the "eye" to make it become a radical for other characters. The "cat" and "god" characters in the comics are a bit tricky coz they are not from pictogram anymore. The left side of the "cat" character represent the character is related to "animal", the right side of the character gives out the hint of what a cat sounds like "miu" in Cantonese or "miao" in Mandarin. The pronounciation of the "cat" character is "mao" for both Cantonese and Mandarin. The right part of "cat" stand alone means "new planted crops", you can break down the characters too, the upper part symbolize this word is about flowers and the lower part means "field". The left side of the "god" character is the radical that associate with mythology. The right side of the "god" character tells you how this character should be pronounced "sunn" in Cantonese or "sheng" in Mandarin. I hope I didn't bore you guys to hell.

I highly recommend ppl to understand why the Kanji looks like what they are because it will be much easier to learn kanji imo. It also helps you to identify new kanji too, so you can guess the meaning of the word although you have never seen it. No one memorize every single characters in Chinese I can assure you. We all learn it this way.

[Klilynkun]

Ok... see... I only know one kangi and that's the one for woman... everything else... I have no idea... so... how did you get simba?

[Killer Queen]

@Klilynkun: We weren't being technical or anything. We were just having fun and making pictures even if they didn't relate to the original history of the kanji. So why Simba? Because I could.