Wednesday, March 2, 2005
"It is harsh attack hardness"
Reader Matthew Gonzales writes:
"Hi, I ran into your sight while browsing. I was wondering if you can tell me what my Kanji means. Thanks a million. Although I do not understand the language [but] I consider Kanji to be a form of art. Sure you can use the pics for your web. So what do they mean?"
The top character looks like an upside-down 辛; which means "bitter; toilsome, laborious; 8th heavenly stem". Or, it could be 幸 with missing stroke at the bottom. (thanks Rikoshi)
伐 = cut down, subjugate, attack
剛 = hard, tough, rigid, strong
The phrase does not have any significant meaning in Chinese. I have also consulted with my Japanese publisher friend in Tokyo, Mr. Ken Nishimura, to see if the phrase had any meaning in Japanese, and here is what he said:
"No, I don't think it makes any sense in Japanese, either. It seems like a name (辛伐, 剛), but I have never heard of such a family name 辛伐. I have no clue how it should be read even if the name existed."