#Japanese type

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Japanese Dimensional Type

The Japanese sculptor and graphic designer Takenobu Igarachi is well-noted for his axonometric type designs. Igarachi is particularly fond of Roman letter forms, but today we are only showing designs based on Japanese characters from his book Takenobu Igarashi A-Z, published in London by Thames & Hudson in 2020.

The Japanese use four different kinds of characters: kanji imported from China; katakana and hiragana invented by the Japanese; romaji, the Roman alphabet from the West. Kanji are ideographs that use about 7000 characters on average. Hiragana are phonetic symbols devised by women of high society around the 7th to 9th centuries consisting of 50 letters. Katagana, a phonetic alphabet  of 50 characters, was invented by Buddhist monks for reading sutra and is made of parts of kanji in simplified form. Comparatively, romaji, or Roman letters used for the Japanese language, is far more simple in shape and structure. In the first two images, Igarachi presents a variety of dimensional Japanese character's.

The last set of images are visualizations of the kanji character hibiki, derived from the Chinese character which means sound, resonance, or echo, representing the corporate philosophy of Igarachi’s client, the Japanese brewing and distilling company Suntory Limited. Working through various morphings of the kanji character, he arrived at what became the Suntory corporate logo. Later, Igarachi made a 3D version utilizing the arch, which was made into a sculpture that adorns the Suntory hall entrance.

View another post from Takenobu Igarashi A-Z.

View more posts on dimensional letters.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.

[exilley]

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits

[wasyago]

joel with a ponytail ( best kind of joel tbh )

( plus an attempt at drawing him with green skin but idk i don't think im gonna use it )

[dunmeshistash]

I was reading - or rather watching - the book dedicated to Daydream Hour released this year, and I came across some pages dedicated to the various characters who give each other Christmas presents. I found it very funny from what little I understood with Google Lens, and was wondering if there was an unofficial English translation. Thanks in advance if you can find it. P.S Pages from 130 to 135 in case you don't understand which ones I mean.

Oh boy, I do have a translation but I think this version is so confusing, it's from when it was in ryoko kui's blog i think

Too much information for me LOL

Here's the untranslated daydream hour version

Yes that's where the Floke family christmas pic comes from.

[jdramasource]

GODZILLA MINUS ONE ゴジラ-1.0 2023, dir. Yamazaki Takashi 

[uwublr]

Pine's Ridiculously Long List of Free Japanese Study Materials

First Month Edition

All my current study materials, because sharing found resources is caring. These are not JLPT-specific and are for pre-beginners to beginners like me. I can't believe I have been studying for a month. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. I am a slow learner, but that's okay. Find a community because it truly does make a difference. Shoutout to Seitokai's Nihongo Discord, and to @tokidokitokyo whose post let me know about it and is just overall a great person too.

Main study material: Marugoto Online A1 Self-Study Kastudoo and Rikai with downloaded PDF and Wordbook (my original post about it)

Supplemental references:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (The only NOT free resource in this list, sorry! The e-book sold on Amazon does not have good reviews as it's a scanned copy of the book, rather than a properly formatted e-book. A free alternative to this is JapBase which also contains Intermediate and Advanced content.)

Marugoto Plus which accompanies the Marugoto courses and includes videos, audio files, etc.

Apps: Anki, Renshuu

Anki decks:

Tatsumoto's Kana (Recognizing and Writing)

Tatsumoto's AnkiDrone Sentence Pack V7

Official KanjiDamage Deck (from the creator of KanjiDamage, crude language warning for both the deck and the site)

Marugoto A1 Rikai Katsudoo 2021

Dictionaries:

Rikaitan browser extension (installed JMDict English V4, JMExtra, 日本語文法辞典(全集), and Kanjium)

Takoboto app (with offline access)

Other resources:

Sukiruma for practice writing sheets

Reader Ttsu for reading Japanese materials on a browser (used in conjunction with Rikaitan, since I couldn't find an e-book reader that I can install a Japanese dictionary in)

Sousakuba for downloadable genkouyoushi without watermarks

Youtube:

Favorites marked with a ⭐️.

Comprehensible Input for what it says on the tin, in bite-size formats

Daily Japanese with Naoko for vlogs with Japanese subtitles

Dogen for the funny videos that you can learn from and/or relate to

Game Gengo because Japanese learning through games, and has JLPT geared content if you're looking for it

Gino Kei who has shorts teaching Japanese in a not so serious way

Hiro - Food in Japan for cooking videos, not in Japanese, but these make me crave for Japanese food anyway so that counts

⭐️ Japan Eat for Japanese food commentary in English and also makes me hungry. So, yeah, not in 日本語 but it's delicious so that also counts

Japanese Koro mostly for kana reading practice which actually helps you get short serotonin boosts for when you do actually get to read the words correctly

Japanese Quest which plays games in Japanese

⭐️ Japarrot! for fun, animated comprehensible input videos

Let's ask Shogo for culture content

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Matcha Samurai for delightfully unhinged culture content, debunking Japanese misconceptions one video at a time

Namba Tsuyoshi for no narration Japanese walk with me style vlogs, very chill and relaxing

⭐️ NihongoDekita with Sayaka for fun, short grammar content

ShekMatz Japan has videos/playlists where she teaches Japanese in Tagalog, so if you can't understand Tagalog, you'd better skip it

Sora The Troll because why not

⭐️ Takashii from Japan is honestly one of my favorites, even before I started learning Japanese. His interviews are just really good!

Taro's Sewing because my toxic trait is thinking I can sew the cool things they post. Also comes with short Japanese commentary on screen

Tokyo Lens counts as uh, immersion even if it's not in Japanese, but it's in Japan so that counts? Yeah, let's go with that

もしもしようすけ for Japan vlogs/walk with me with Japanese and English subtitles

Yomii Japan Piano if you like piano and the occasional trolling

Japanese Calligrapher Takumi because my other toxic trait is thinking I can write this beautifully

[doctorsiren]

Mabel in my OOTD!

Edit: fixed a mistake in the writing 😁

[infernal-lamb]

"No, Lamb, I do not fear Him. I do not fear you sending me to Him. Narinder and I will always meet, it is but the natural order of things, for War will always bring Death its harvest."

had another go at Shamura again....and just a little chat between them and the Lamb :) Decided to give Shamura a sickle for fun....to match with Narinder's scythe....just some silly agrarian tools of death!

[bunnrio]

noemie released some new shirt styles

[zaebucca]

Mythical Encounters in ancient Hisui: the Shrine at Newmoon Island Grove

[alexalblondo]

The only good thing about this race was Yuki Tsunoda masterclass once again, mans is single handedly getting his team P6 in the standings, he's the only bitch with a plan, he deserves the world, here's how he's still winning the championship btw:

[y-ves]

#⃝𝟶1 ( TOKYO DRIFT X SEONGHWA ) 町中すべってのりこむ ?

[m1nsur0]

First Winter Known, First Snowball Thrown

[hanniedream]

[hisui-dreamer]

thinking about jamil who's trying to impress you with his cooking, trying all sorts of dishes, different spices, different ingredients, spending hours cooking in the kitchen just to try and coincidentally tell you he's accidentally made too much food again, and it'd help so much if you could take it off his hands

you always do, smiling gratefully and accepting the food with both hands, your words of gratitude spilling freely from your mouth and it'd make him so happy-

but he's never seen you eat the food.

he's a bit confused, he's heard you mention to others that you don't get a lot to eat from the headmaster, and he's always seen you readily eat food others give you, the tarts you get from trey, the apples epel gifts you, even the dubious mushroom dishes jade offers... (no he wasn't keeping count!)

so he gets the courage to ask you one time, making it seem like it was another coincidence when he finds you at the library, making casual conversation before asking you what you thought of his food

"oh! i think it was delicious! grim seemed to really enjoy it!"

you... think?

he asks if you'd had any of the food, and you avert your eyes, seemingly hesitant

"ahh.. i haven't... i have awful spice tolerance you see..."

oh.

oh.

the next time he gives you "leftovers", he makes sure to tell you he made a non-spicy variant of curry, so you should be able to enjoy it

what you don't know is that he spent a few nights trying to perfect a non-spicy dish, researching different cusines and ingredients before finally setting on an eastern variant of curry that seemed to suit your tastes

but it's all worth it, the way you stared at him in awe, maybe realising this wasn't a leftover at all, and the way your eyes sparkled as you excitedly asked-

"oh!! do you mind if i try it now?"

[jdramasource]

Dan Rei as Mia Fey ACE ATTORNEY 逆転裁判 (2012) dir. Miike Takashi