Undoubtedly, a large number of kanji complicates the writing system and the process of learning, which led to a number of reforms. For example, classical forms of the kanji were simplified. For this, Japanese used a less complex form of kanji, which was already used in informal situations. This, however, does not mean that the outdated, complete forms of kanji have completely fallen out of use. Classic, outdated forms of kanji can be found today in inscriptions of a solemn nature, small-print works of book and calligraphic art, etc. In some areas, such as sumo wrestling, archaic hieroglyphs continue to be used, which creates an appropriate medieval environment.
Do Japanese people still use classical kanji?
Many schools and universities use the traditional writing of the hieroglyph 学 /gaku/ on their emblems, which looks like 學. The journal 文藝春秋 /Bungei-shunju:/, founded in the first third of the 20th century, preserves the classical spelling of the characters 芸 /gay/ as 藝 in its title. The mass newspaper 日本経済新聞 /Nihon-keizai Shimbun/ The Japanese economic newspaper also uses the obsolete forms of the characters 経済 /keizai/ 經濟 in its title. Classical writing against the background of standard simplified forms of the same kanji is associated with ideas about traditionality, conservatism, etc.
Classical forms of writing hieroglyphs are often found in names and surnames. For example, the surname Hara is usually written with the character 原. However, one of the families with such a surname traditionally writes it without a dot, although such a character is not in the standard computer character set. As another example, the name Hiroshi is usually written with the character 寛, but one of its speakers adds a dot to the indicated character in the lower right corner. Therefore, the use of archaic or non-standard hieroglyphs is quite acceptable and even appropriate in some areas, which once again testifies to the liberality of the modern Japanese writing system.
Have you ever seen classic kanji shapes? Share in the comments!
