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· TYPEFACES IN JAPANESE: 11/29/2005
Japanese has, like most languages, a few different writing styles. Quite obviously you know a few different ones for english/american, because your handwriting isn't going to look like the "georgia" font this is typed in, and neither will something written in cursive italics look much like either this georgia font or your handwriting. In fact, the A alone will look completely different in all three scripts. Japanese has a few 'standard' faces. These have come from the various approaches to the Kanji system as employed since +/- 600 ad. Aside from normal printform styles, there are also old block-print styles, and the cursive styles that come from the artistic approach. (Compare this to our use of gothic caligraphy)
The real reason for this example is exactly this form. This is near identical to the hiragana syllable め ['me']. Which is because this writing style is where the hiragana script originated. The katakana were derived from certain kanji in this style and used primarily by men (hence its alternative name 男手, おとこで, otokote, men's hand), where hiragana was derived from other kanji (some were the same but simplified further differently) and made to look less 'rugged', mostly used by women, hence its alternative name 女手 (おんなで, onnade, woman's hand) |
