Just a quick question to any who speak Japanese

[demoman_chaos]

So I semi-recently got a new sword, which happened to be a pretty good katana. I am pondering a good name for her, and she has 3 symbols on her already but I don't know what they mean (the sword was a gift from a friend). So can the Escapist tell me what these mean?

Spoiler

 

[Frezzato]

I think it says something along the lines of:

Shadow Tiger Katana

.

I enhanced the text in Photoshop and used an online translator, which sort of worked through Google Translate.

Spoiler: ta da

Perhaps you should name him 'Nick'.

 

[Batou667]

My Japanese is a little rusty, but I think that roughly translated, that says "Silly gaijin paid 400% markup"

 

[Queen Michael]

I showed my Japanese friend, and he said it translates to "Help, I am stuck in a katana factory."

 

[FalloutJack]

I showed my Japanese friend, and he said it translates to "Help, I am stuck in a katana factory."

This made me laugh, quite a bit. But...as I think about it...who gets stuck in a place full of sword artisans? Aren't the tools of freedom lying at your feet?

 

[duwenbasden]

Something along the lines of "Photograph Tiger's knife". Who is this Tiger and why is his/her/its knife so worthy of photography?

 

[CrystalShadow]

The closest I could find does seem to amount to kage tora gatana. Or in other words, shadow tiger sword, as Frezzato already mentioned.

I don't speak japanese properly though. I study it, but I have a long way to go yet, and most of that came from google translate.

Besides, even if I might've understood kage-gatana (yeah, has a g in translation, not a k. Don't ask me why either), as 'shadow sword' if someone said it out loud, I didn't recognise the kanji regardless.

Although, I was fairly confident the last kanji is...
Well, it means 'cut', 'knife','sword' and so on.
No real challenge figuring out why it'd be on a katana. XD

(trouble with kanji is the pronounciation can vary with context. To understand kanji you need to understand the meaning to get the pronounciation. With most text westerners understand, you need the pronounciation to understand the meaning, so it's backwards. Ironically, this has resulted in me knowing the meaning of several kanji, but not the japanese words that go with that meaning.
Like the kanji for sun, moon, fire, water, mountain, rice field, wagon, person, big, tall, above, below... I recognise the meaning easily enough, but not the japanese word that goes with it. XD)

 

[kurokotetsu]

Just a quick intervention. WHile the kanjis seem to be those of shadow tiger sword and the kage tora gatana could be appropiate in a proper name (the g is due to lngusitic stylings in the Japanese form what a professor told me, sometimes when the "pure" sound like ka might seem to harsh the japanese change it to the "impure" which for ka is ga to make it easier to listen to, for example in the tames of Tanaka and Yamada bot of which use the same kanjio of rice fied, ta but one uses the da sound) there are other opssible readings to those three kanjis. most kanjis have a Japanese and a CHinese reading (in Japanese) and those cna be used to have different names. The Shadow has a kage Japanese reading and a ei and you CHinese readings. THe Tiger has a tora and take Japanese readings and a ku ko Chinease readings. THe Sword has a katana and sori Japanese reaing and a tou Chinease reaings. (Form google foo used to see the possible readings) So play I little with those combinations maybe, since names are more plastic in Japanese.

I woudl go with something like Youkutou which sounds a bit more natural than the Japanese readings together. Also the "ou" is a long "o" rin romanization fo the japanese. Remember that and have fun looking for a name.

 

[Zeraki]

My Japanese is a little rusty, but I think that roughly translated, that says "Silly gaijin paid 400% markup"

I haven't had a laugh like that from this forum in a really long time, you just made my night a bit more entertaining.

OT: Unfortunately I don't know a lick of Japanese... but the Kanji are pretty.

 

[Guffe]

I showed my Japanese friend, and he said it translates to "Help, I am stuck in a katana factory."

This made me laugh, quite a bit. But...as I think about it...who gets stuck in a place full of sword artisans? Aren't the tools of freedom lying at your feet?

Oh my God I almost shit myslef reading that :,D
I have no knowledege of Japanese OP, sory for that, but I knew I'd get something out of this thread coming halfsober into it

Good luck with naming the Katana, apparently it has with Shadows and Tigers to do.
So "Tidows" would be a good name?

 

[raankh]

Those kanji can also be read as Phantom Drunkard Dagger

I agree with Frezzato; Kagetoragatana is the straight up kun reading - Shadow Tiger Katana, although there are other readings.

source: http://jisho.org/search/影虎刀 #kanji

 

[Twintix]

Reminds me a story I heard, a woman gets a tattoo of a chinese character on her butt, then 10 years later she gets injured and an asian doctor sees the tattoo during a check and starts laughting, she asks why, he answers that her tattoo says "a cheap but tasty dish".

Haha, which is why I declined when a man selling a dog (Zodiac) pendant asked me if I wanted him to write my name in Chinese letters on the back when I was in Shanghai.

Partially because I'd feel a bit pretentious, but mostly because I didn't know if he'd write what my name would sound like rather than, say, something like "gullible stupid foreigner" or "fatty" or "smelly *****".

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

50/50 chance its either 'noble wind' or 'Foreigners make me rich'.

Edit: Oh, I see everyone beat me to it. XD

I'd love to have a sword at some point but its pretty low on the priority list.