Japanese woman celebrates 100th birthday, boggles netizens’ minds with unusual name

[LostOne4Ever]

Last edited Sat Mar 28, 2015, 01:37 AM - Edit history (1)

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]Rocket News 24[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]Turning 100 years old is indeed a great achievement. Not only can we appreciate and look up to those who seem to follow the correct path to a ripe old age, but it’s always a shining example of how far we have come as a people to extend our lives so much over the years.

And so, it’s with great honor and reverence that we here at RocketNews24 would like to wish a happy belated birthday to Ms… erm… Mxy…zptlk Sugahara!

Apparently we weren’t alone in not being able to read this woman’s name. Netizens came out in droves shrugging their shoulders and figuring a cockroach got into the printing press. A chosen few however, scolded their peers for not being cultured enough to decipher it.


The woman’s last name “Sugahara” (菅原 ) was easy enough to understand. Her given name though, caused people to ask “Is it Korean?” and “I can’t read it. How were they able to print those characters?”

More at link...


[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]And just when I thought I had kana down pat, I learn of Hentaigana!

Oh well, this kind of variety is part of what I find fun about studying Japanese.

Anyway Happy Belated Birthday to Sugahara Tomi San!

And, if anyone else is interested in Japanese calligraphy and letters I found an even bigger list of hentaigana [/font]

[ZombieHorde]

1. What is hentaigana?

[LostOne4Ever]

2. From my understanding it is the pre-runner to the current Hiragana that is used in Japanese

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Supposedly you find it on a lot of older Japanese documents and signs used by some Japanese restaurants.

I get the impression its like the shops we have in America that use Gothic script and use terms like "ye old candle shop." They are wanting to refer to an older time.[/font]

Edit: [font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]I am no expert, just a student of the language who just learned about this myself.[/font]