Welcome to my Japanese Sword & Fittings Kanji web site!

I put this site together in hopes that it would assist others on their personal journey of sword study. 

One of the first hurdles encountered is reading kanji on the nakago of swords.  This site endeavors to assist those interested in learning the process of identifying the root stokes (radicals), looking them up in commonly found dictionaries, and to get a feel for the characters meaning.

I give full credit for the information provided on this site to B.W. Robinson for the kanji tables presented in his book “The Arts of the Japanese Sword”.  Any mistakes are my own.

It is my hope that you find this information useful and that it will help you with some of the initially painful learning curve associated with this hobby.

If you do find this useful, please drop me a note letting me know your thoughts.  I would really appreciate it.

Web Resources that I used to prepare these files:

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Japanese-English Dictionary Server.

 

 

PS2PDF.com -  a great site for creating PDF files.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Adobe PDF viewer can be downloaded here:

 

The Add Me! service for getting listed on Search engines:

 

Books & Dictionaries referenced on this site:

The Arts of the Japanese Sword
B.W. Robinson
Faber and Faber; London and Boston
ISBN #0 571 04723 8
1987 printing (Hardcover)

The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary
Based on the classic edition by Andrew N. Nelson
Completely revised by John H. Haig and the department of 
East Asian languages and literatures, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Charles E. Tuttle Company; Rutland Vermont & Tokyo Japan
ISBN #0 8048 2036 8
1998 printing (Hardcover)

Japanese Names & How to Read Them
A.J. Koop and Hogitaro Inada
Routledge & Kegan Paul; London and Boston
ISBN #0 7100 1707 3
1972 printing (Hardcover)

This book is coming out in paperback very soon !

Japanese Art Signatures
James Self and Nobuko Hirose
Bamboo Publishing Ltd; London
ISBN #1 870076 04 4
1987 printing (Hardcover)

This book is now out in paperback!

First Floating World Edition, 2003

ISBN #1-891640-09-7

New Japanese-English Character Dictionary
Editor in Chief: Jack Halpern
NTC Publishing Group; Illinois
ISBN # 0 8442 8434 3
1993 printing

Kanji Learner’s Dictionary
Editor in Chief: Jack Halpern
Kodansha International; Tokyo, New York, London
ISBN #4 7700 2335 9
1999 printing

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

Kenneth G. Henshall

Tuttle Publishing; Boston, Rutland Vermont, Tokyo Japan

ISBN #0-8048-2038-4

2000 printing

Japanese Names - A Comprehensive Index by Character and Readings
P.G. O’Neill
Weatherhill, Inc.; New York & Tokyo
ISBN #0-8348-0225-2
1995 printing

Essential Kanji – 2000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged 
for Learning and Reference
P.G. O’Neill
Weatherhill, Inc.; New York & Tokyo
ISBN #0 8348 0082 9
1999 printing