Re: Shikona and the Three NOs

[hank@westford.ccur.com]

Jordan Plitteris <jsp@morgan.com> writes:
>The odd thing is the differnt ways that "no" is written. The Hanada brothers
>use the Katakana no in Takanohana and Wakanohana. Mainoumi (Mai-no-umi, or
>"Of the Dancing Sea", or something equally poetic), and Kotonowaka use a
>Hiragana "no". And finally, Asanowaka and Akinoshima use a Kanji "no".

I once mentioned this phenomenon, using the katakana no rather than
hiragana, to somebody who should know. (sorry it may have been a Japanese
teacher but I can't remember now)  Anyway that person said that it was not
katakana but really a kanji.  However the character katakana no is only
listed as katakana in the JIS character set.  Unlike,  for instance,
katakana ta which is listed both as a katakana and seperately as a kanji.
It is also not listed seperately in kanjidic.  Does anybody know the whole
story?  I suspect that it's just one of those quirky things in Japanese
typography.  There is not always one correct way of writing something in
Japanese.  Different writing styles give different flavors.  It may also be
important to remember whan discussing things like shikona that the
convention of using katakana for gairaigo (foreign loan words) is
relatively modern, really only postwar, yet katakana itself is just as old
as hiragana.  There may be a connection to the fact that in the Nara
period katakana was used by men and hiragana was used by women.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hank Cohen
Concurrent Nippon Corp.
Shuwa yanagibashi Bldg. 5F
Yanagibashi 2-19-6
Taito-ku Tokyo 111, Japan
Denwa: 03-3864-5714
Fax: 03-3864-0898