Kanji embroidery

[opr1945]

You select Gi, Gi add embroidery, pay, they send Gi, you receive Gi.

 

[opr1945]

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About NISHOHI​

Welcome to NISHOHI, your trusted online retailer based in Japan, offering high-quality sporting equipment specially designed for professional athletes and competitive amateurs in gymnastics, table tennis, and martial arts.​

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????

 

[Hot Lunch]

You select Gi, Gi add embroidery, pay, they send Gi, you receive Gi.

Post #18 appeared to be you saying that they have multiple brick & mortar locations for you to bring a gi that you already own for embroidery.

 

[opr1945]

I will concede that I was not as clear as I could have been. When I said "they offer embroidery at multiple locations on jackets " I meant locations on the jacket, i.e. right chest, left chest, right sleeve, left sleeve, right jacket tail, left jacket tail, as well as various locations on the pants.

Although, I see where you could have read it as meaning various geographical locations for the work to be done.

My error. Also, this embroidering is for an accompanying a purchase of a gi. Not bring your already owned item in for embroidery.

Please accept my apology for careless wording on my part.

 

[opr1945]

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."

Strother Martin as Captain - Cool Hand Luke (Movie)(1967)​

 

[opr1945]

I did find several retailers who will make custom name tag, for 1 patch. on etsy.
Prices seem to start around $5-15 plus $20 shipping. Many will very.

My quote was $15.00 patch. $16.00 shipping. Patch had my name in English beside my name in Katakana.

Katakana​

seems more common than Kanji
Kanji

 

[Gyakuto]

If you don't have a Japanese name, you don't get kanji on your lapel. You get katakana. There's what's called "ateji," where kanji is used to spell out your name according to the pronunciation of the kanji characters, but they would end up conveying a totally different meaning that has nothing to do with your name

That’s not strictly true. Kanji do, indeed have meaning and a pronunciation, but luckily, there are many kanji with the same sounding but different meaning. Most transliteraters of Western (or Indian names!) will provide two or three or even more versions of ones name in kanji with with the correct sounds to say your name (as close as it possible) and a poetic and often apt, meaning. After all with the exception of a few Western names, how many people know what there names actually mean. Fletcher, yes, Cooper, yes, Smith, yes but Leathard? Bratt? Kenny? etc When you’re introduced to ‘Lionel Cooper’ do you think, ‘Oh his ancestors were barrel makers’?

The kanji presented to me and which I have adopted for the first syllable of my surname means ‘to polish/refine [a gem stone] to a beautiful lustre’. It reflects the great effort and sheer hard work I’ve put in to attain the level of my academic/martial skills. The second means the season ‘Spring’ which is a beloved time of year in Japan because of the cherry blossom. One of my Japanese teacher name is ‘Oshita’ the kanji for which literally means ‘under’ and ‘field’ Cool meaning, eh?

In Japan, anyone can adopt any family crest (‘mon’) the like (perhaps with the exception of the Imperial chrysanthemum)…but there are no rules about this.

If you want kanji characters for your name and you can find someone with the knowledge to do it well, go ahead, you live in the USA and are totally free unlike the rest of the world. Is it pretentious? Possibly. Is it cultural appropriation? Get a life. Is it cool? YES!

(Andre Bertel is a famous an example of a western karateka with ateji on his gi).

Andre Bertels means ‘Donkey udders’ in a dialect of ancient Norse with a French pronunciation…that’s why he uses katakana

In my estimation,

That means you are guessing.

however, you can only get away with that if there's no Japanese person in your dojo... otherwise, you're going to be in for an awkward conversation.

I’m sure ‘Donkey Udders’ has many such awkward conversations in ancient Norse dojo in the north west of Scandinavia.

 

[opr1945]

Similarly, I just found this on the internet:

"In Japan, legally your name can only be written in kanji if your actual legal name is written in kanji, which means you have to be from one of the handful of countries where that is the custom--Japan, China, one of the Koreas but I forget which one and I'm not even sure if that's still the legal norm...possibly Singapore? Hong Kong before it was part of China...and maybe one or two more I'm forgetting.

When foreigners naturalize as Japanese citizens, it's not uncommon to create an ateji name using kanji that approximate the pronunciation of their name, and some people might also do it for a stage name or a nom de plume or whatever. But otherwise it's just kind of cringey, weird, and disingenuous since if you write your name in kanji people will assume that you are from one of those countries where it is the norm."

Guess, I will go with Katakana, if I do it at all. "Minutes late and a dollar short."

 

[Hot Lunch]

That’s not strictly true. Kanji do, indeed have meaning and a pronunciation, but luckily, there are many kanji with the same sounding but different meaning. Most transliteraters of Western (or Indian names!) will provide two or three or even more versions of ones name in kanji with with the correct sounds to say your name (as close as it possible) and a poetic and often apt, meaning. After all with the exception of a few Western names, how many people know what there names actually mean. Fletcher, yes, Cooper, yes, Smith, yes but Leathard? Bratt? Kenny? etc When you’re introduced to ‘Lionel Cooper’ do you think, ‘Oh his ancestors were barrel makers’?

The kanji presented to me and which I have adopted for the first syllable of my surname means ‘to polish/refine [a gem stone] to a beautiful lustre’. It reflects the great effort and sheer hard work I’ve put in to attain the level of my academic/martial skills. The second means the season ‘Spring’ which is a beloved time of year in Japan because of the cherry blossom. One of my Japanese teacher name is ‘Oshita’ the kanji for which literally means ‘under’ and ‘field’ Cool meaning, eh?

But do either of those kanji have anything to do with the meaning of your name?

A guy named Joseph might go by "Joe," and might want that embroidered on his gi. Coincidentally, the male name "Jo" exists in Japanese. The kanji is 城. Does mean that Joe uses this kanji? No. 城 means "castle." The name Joseph means "God will add."

I can't remember what the word for it is, but there's a thing where you choose from among the kanji with the same pronunciation the ones that are the most relevant to the meaning of your name to make ateji for it, but even then... that's still the act of a gaijin who's desperate to use kanji. Think about this: Japanese baseball player, named Richard Sunagawa. I believe one of his parents or grandparents is American, but he himself was born and raised in Japan. His first name is spelled in katakana. If it was normal or casual for a gaijin name, even if it was a Japanese person with that name, to be spelled in ateji, then he would be doing it. But he's not. So why should any of us have the audacity?

If you want kanji characters for your name and you can find someone with the knowledge to do it well, go ahead, you live in the USA and are totally free unlike the rest of the world.

I don't know why you think that, or maybe you don't and it's an attempt at mockery. Either way, my nationality is living rent-free in your head when no one is even thinking of yours.

Is it pretentious? Possibly. Is it cultural appropriation? Get a life. Is it cool? YES!

It's cringe.

Andre Bertels means ‘Donkey udders’ in a dialect of ancient Norse with a French pronunciation…that’s why he uses katakana

But he doesn't use katana. He uses ateji.

That means you are guessing.

If I was guessing, I would have used that word. The difference that an estimation is actually based on something.

I’m sure ‘Donkey Udders’ has many such awkward conversations in ancient Norse dojo in the north west of Scandinavia.

I'm positive that even if you weren't joking, there wouldn't be enough people in Japan who speak a Scandinavian language for that to make a difference. The use of ateji in and of itself would be the subject of awkward conversation.

 

[Hot Lunch]

Similarly, I just found this on the internet:

"In Japan, legally your name can only be written in kanji if your actual legal name is written in kanji, which means you have to be from one of the handful of countries where that is the custom--Japan, China, one of the Koreas but I forget which one and I'm not even sure if that's still the legal norm...possibly Singapore? Hong Kong before it was part of China...and maybe one or two more I'm forgetting.

When foreigners naturalize as Japanese citizens, it's not uncommon to create an ateji name using kanji that approximate the pronunciation of their name, and some people might also do it for a stage name or a nom de plume or whatever. But otherwise it's just kind of cringey, weird, and disingenuous since if you write your name in kanji people will assume that you are from one of those countries where it is the norm."

Guess, I will go with Katakana, if I do it at all. "Minutes late and a dollar short."

The other country is Vietnam, though it has fallen into disuse in the mid-1800's; and the vast majority of Vietnamese since then have been unable to read it. If they know the chu nom characters that represent their name, then it probably fits within the Japanese law that's being cited by the person you're quoting.

But if it makes anyone feel better... I don't know if there are any Chinese martial arts where names are embroidered on clothing, but if there are, there is no katakana/hiragana equivalent in Chinese. Your name would actually be spelled with hanzi characters (basically, ateji). However, my understanding is that there are pre-set characters that are chosen for that. For example, the name David means "beloved." In Chinese, David is spelled 大衛; which means "big guard." There might be other hanzi with the same pronunciation that better suit "beloved," but I'm not sure if you get to choose. Not that it would matter - if there were pre-set kanji characters for gaijin names in Japanese, but without the need to swap them out to ones with the closest meaning to the name in order for things to "feel right," they'd simply be content with their name being in kanji characters.

I'll admit that, yes, kanji is more aesthetically pleasing than katakana. That is, unless your use of kanji makes you look like a goofball. Hard pass on that.