Re: Shikona and the Three NOs

[Shoujirou Mizutori <MIZUTORI@shogun.matfys.lth.se>]

In the Message in 4-OCT-1994 02:12:29.38, 
Mr Hank Cohen (hank@westford.ccur.com) wrote,
>
>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

Well, the Kanji, which looks quite identical with Katakana "ta"
is "yu", which means evening. They are different characters.
Both hiragana and katakana are simplification of Kanji which had
been used to represent the pronunciation. Hiragana is a modification
of writing style kanji, while katakana is a part of a kanji.
Some of hiragana and katakana have a common origin. Some of them
have different oririnal kanji. (Sorry I don't remember any example.)
Katakana "ta" is a part of kanji "ta", which means many.
But I'm not aware any relation between katakana "ta" and kanji "yu".

By the way, talking about "no" in shikona, an interesting example
is the first generation Hanada brothers.
Both of them used katakana "no" on his shikona, at first.
At some point, maybe while he was Ozeki, Wakanohana I changed his
"no" from katakana to kanji. And soon he became Yokozuna.
Takanohana I, who had been Ozaki long time but couldn't make it to 
Yokozuna, decided one day to follow his brother-and-oyakata's example
and change his "no" from katakana to kanji.
Such behavier is quite common in Japanese. Name is considered to affect
his luck. If you have bad name, you will be always unlucky.
Good name will give you good luck and good fate.
Because of his brother's success, he thought that to change his "no"
would give him luck. But unfortunately, he didn't success. He eventually
restored his "no" to katakana....
Takanohana I had also changed his "given name". 
(Not real name, I think. Rikishi has "given name" except for the usually
called part. ex. Takamiyama Daigoro. Daigoro is his "given name", but it
is hardly his real name. Another ex. Konishiki Yasokichi.
Sorry, I don't remember Akebono's name.)

                                                 Shoujirou Mizutori
                                                 Dept. of Mat. Fys.
                                                 Lund Inst. of Tech.