What's in a name?
Nov. 11th, 2003 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanAh, more speculation on Silver Diamond, to keep me occupied until I can get home and start translating the third installment. As promised, this bit has to do with the possible foreshadowing and/or metaphoric meanings in the characters' names.
What's in a name?
Names in Chigusa's world follow a pattern - both family and personal names are composed of two characters each. Furthermore, one of either characters from the family name is repeated in the personal name. Thus we have Senrou Chigusa ('sen' and 'chi' are the same kanji); Kingen Kinrei (obviously, 'kin' is the repeated character); and Shigeka Narushige (again, 'shige' is the repeated character). Since we know that 'Sawa' is the name of Rakan's adoptive grandfather and not his real surname, we can anticipate that either the 'ra' or 'kan' from Rakan's name is also part of his original family name.
With that out of the way, we can begin to dissect the names themselves.
Senrou Chigusa
First, we have Senrou Chigusa. Both the 'sen' and the 'chi' are readings for a character which means 'thousand.' (Anyone who's seen 千と千尋の神隠し aka Spirited Away should remember this!) 'Gusa' (or rather, 'kusa') means 'grasses, plants.' So Chigusa's given name means 'One thousand plants.' Seeing as Chigusa's world is almost barren due to the influence of the gold clan, whom he is fighting, I think the symbolism in his name is pretty obvious.
At first I thought Chigusa's family name meant "One thousand silvers." But interestingly enough, 'rou' is not a phonetic reading for the 'silver' character. When I looked more closely, I saw that there is one more stroke in 'rou' than there is in the kanji for 'silver.' To thicken the plot, the 'rou' in 'Senrou' shows up in my Japanese word processor's character pad, but not in any of my three character dictionaries, so I have no idea what it means. It may be that this is one of a number of characters that are only used phonetically in names, but even still, it should appear in a dictionary, somewhere. Consider this our mystery character for the moment. If nothing else, I think Sugiura is making a visual pun on the character for 'silver' and Chigusa's association with the hated silver races + [whatever the meaning of 'rou' is].
Kingen Kinrei
I get the feeling from the second chapter of SD that Kingen is going to be one of our primary antagonists. This supposition is supported by the reading for the second character in his given name, 'rei.' 'Rei,' depending on the context in which it is used, can mean either 'underling, servant' or 'criminal.' So Kinrei's given name means either 'golden servant' or 'golden criminal.' My guess is that in SD, it means both. A more figurative reading may be 'minion/henchman of the Golds,' or something similar. Certainly Kingen's close relationship with the imperial prince supports this interpretation.
The 'gen' in Kingen's surname can mean a string (as in a stringed instrument) or the quarter moon. So we either have "golden string" or "golden quarter moon" as the meaning here.
Shigeka Narushige
The 'shige' in Narushige's name is a little tricky. The character itself can mean that something is heavy, that things are piled on top of one another, or that something is important but none of these meanings are pronounced 'shige.' 'Shige' is a phonetic reading for this character when it appears in names. Thus, it may have no meaning outside of supplying this sound. The 'naru' in Narushige's given name means 'to succeed, to be accomplished, be attained.' So, assuming that the 'shige' is intended to have meaning, his first name means something along the lines of 'to become important.'
The 'ka' in Narushige's surname means either the pinnacle/essence of something, or that something is showy, flowery, brilliant. Putting this together with the 'shige' character, several different meanings for this surname result. I also don't believe it's an accident that the 'ka' in 'Shigeka' is often associated with brilliant flowers, growing things, and so forth.
Sawa Rakan
We know that Sawa is the surname of Rakan's adoptive grandfather, but as it means 'marsh' or 'swamp,' I'm pretty sure it's a play on Rakan's true identity as a sanome.
The 'ra' in 'Rakan' is usually used phonetically in proper names, and when transcribing the names of Buddhist deities. It originates from a Chinese character which meant 'silk' or an otherwise gauzy fabric. The 'kan' means 'to pierce.' So if Rakan's name does mean something, it's along the lines of 'pierced fabric' or 'pierced gauze.' I'm going to do some heavy speculating and say this might have something to do with the fact that Rakan is going to pierce the veil between our world and Chigusa's world, but that may be reading to much into things at this point.
In other news,
Quizzage!
You are a goddess!
Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
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Which Sleater-Kinney Girl Are You?
You are mRNA. You're brilliant, full of important,
interesting information and you're a great
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have sides to you that no one understands. But
while you understand more than most people,
you're only half-there most of the time.
Which Biological Molecule Are You?
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That will be all.
What's in a name?
Names in Chigusa's world follow a pattern - both family and personal names are composed of two characters each. Furthermore, one of either characters from the family name is repeated in the personal name. Thus we have Senrou Chigusa ('sen' and 'chi' are the same kanji); Kingen Kinrei (obviously, 'kin' is the repeated character); and Shigeka Narushige (again, 'shige' is the repeated character). Since we know that 'Sawa' is the name of Rakan's adoptive grandfather and not his real surname, we can anticipate that either the 'ra' or 'kan' from Rakan's name is also part of his original family name.
With that out of the way, we can begin to dissect the names themselves.
Senrou Chigusa
First, we have Senrou Chigusa. Both the 'sen' and the 'chi' are readings for a character which means 'thousand.' (Anyone who's seen 千と千尋の神隠し aka Spirited Away should remember this!) 'Gusa' (or rather, 'kusa') means 'grasses, plants.' So Chigusa's given name means 'One thousand plants.' Seeing as Chigusa's world is almost barren due to the influence of the gold clan, whom he is fighting, I think the symbolism in his name is pretty obvious.
At first I thought Chigusa's family name meant "One thousand silvers." But interestingly enough, 'rou' is not a phonetic reading for the 'silver' character. When I looked more closely, I saw that there is one more stroke in 'rou' than there is in the kanji for 'silver.' To thicken the plot, the 'rou' in 'Senrou' shows up in my Japanese word processor's character pad, but not in any of my three character dictionaries, so I have no idea what it means. It may be that this is one of a number of characters that are only used phonetically in names, but even still, it should appear in a dictionary, somewhere. Consider this our mystery character for the moment. If nothing else, I think Sugiura is making a visual pun on the character for 'silver' and Chigusa's association with the hated silver races + [whatever the meaning of 'rou' is].
Kingen Kinrei
I get the feeling from the second chapter of SD that Kingen is going to be one of our primary antagonists. This supposition is supported by the reading for the second character in his given name, 'rei.' 'Rei,' depending on the context in which it is used, can mean either 'underling, servant' or 'criminal.' So Kinrei's given name means either 'golden servant' or 'golden criminal.' My guess is that in SD, it means both. A more figurative reading may be 'minion/henchman of the Golds,' or something similar. Certainly Kingen's close relationship with the imperial prince supports this interpretation.
The 'gen' in Kingen's surname can mean a string (as in a stringed instrument) or the quarter moon. So we either have "golden string" or "golden quarter moon" as the meaning here.
Shigeka Narushige
The 'shige' in Narushige's name is a little tricky. The character itself can mean that something is heavy, that things are piled on top of one another, or that something is important but none of these meanings are pronounced 'shige.' 'Shige' is a phonetic reading for this character when it appears in names. Thus, it may have no meaning outside of supplying this sound. The 'naru' in Narushige's given name means 'to succeed, to be accomplished, be attained.' So, assuming that the 'shige' is intended to have meaning, his first name means something along the lines of 'to become important.'
The 'ka' in Narushige's surname means either the pinnacle/essence of something, or that something is showy, flowery, brilliant. Putting this together with the 'shige' character, several different meanings for this surname result. I also don't believe it's an accident that the 'ka' in 'Shigeka' is often associated with brilliant flowers, growing things, and so forth.
Sawa Rakan
We know that Sawa is the surname of Rakan's adoptive grandfather, but as it means 'marsh' or 'swamp,' I'm pretty sure it's a play on Rakan's true identity as a sanome.
The 'ra' in 'Rakan' is usually used phonetically in proper names, and when transcribing the names of Buddhist deities. It originates from a Chinese character which meant 'silk' or an otherwise gauzy fabric. The 'kan' means 'to pierce.' So if Rakan's name does mean something, it's along the lines of 'pierced fabric' or 'pierced gauze.' I'm going to do some heavy speculating and say this might have something to do with the fact that Rakan is going to pierce the veil between our world and Chigusa's world, but that may be reading to much into things at this point.
In other news,
Quizzage!
I amNyarlathotep! The 999 forms of Nyarlathotep are a point of meditation for the true initiate. It is through these manifold faces that the secrets of the universe are made known. Called "The Crawling Chaos", Nyarlathotep is the disembodied ego of Azathoth and thus the universal "I" of known reality. Some of the many documented forms are; Father of Knives, Nephren-Ka, the Black Man, the Beast of the Lashing Tongue to name a few. |
 |
| Which Great Old One are you? | |
You are a goddess!
Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Which Sleater-Kinney Girl Are You?
You are mRNA. You're brilliant, full of important,
interesting information and you're a great
friend to the people you care about. You may
have sides to you that no one understands. But
while you understand more than most people,
you're only half-there most of the time.
Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2003-11-11 06:26 pm (UTC)I'm going to do some heavy speculating and say this might have something to do with the fact that Rakan is going to pierce the veil between our world and Chigusa's world, but that may be reading too much into things at this point.
I think you're spot on here. In fact, I'd venture to suggest that any sort of heavy speculating here would eventually become relevant some way or another, since Rakan is certainly going to play a crucial role in the manga.
I'm guessing Silver Diamond follows KMM and is being serialised in Ichirachi (er, did I get that romanisation right?)? How frequent are the instalments?
PerSeiD
no subject
on 2003-11-11 06:53 pm (UTC)I don't doubt it. Describing kanji (and what they mean) is hard.
I think you're spot on here. In fact, I'd venture to suggest that any sort of heavy speculating here would eventually become relevant some way or another, since Rakan is certainly going to play a crucial role in the manga.
True, but I'd like to be able to say that I was right, and not that I was looking for something that wasn't there. And the idea of the "veil between worlds" is a very western concept.
Then again, KnMM demonstrated that Sugiura's well acquainted with her western fairytale traditions. I wonder if her knowledge extends to occult traditions as well.
I'm guessing Silver Diamond follows KMM and is being serialised in Ichirachi (er, did I get that romanisation right?)? How frequent are the instalments?
Follows KnMM in that it's Sugiura's new manga, but obviously doesn't follow it in universe or storyline. Yup, it's being serialised in IchiRaci - which is how it's spelled alphabetically. I think the katakana transliteration might be Icchi Rashi, although I'll have to check.
The installments come out once enough, but it can take weeks for shipments of manga monthlies to reach my town, so I'm not entirely sure.
The "rou" in Senrou
on 2004-07-03 11:29 pm (UTC)The character is listed (with the pronunciation rou) in WWWJDIC as meaning "lock, lanthanum." Thus, senrou = thousand locks? It is character number 6435 (I think?) in the JIS X 212 database. Apparently, it is a very rare character, which explains why it isn't in any character dictionaries -- I couldn't find any Japanese words in WWWJDIC using that character. I don't know where to look for more information on it.
I wonder if it means "lock" like the lock in a door, or like a lock of hair? I'm guessing the former.
Lanthanum is a rare-earth element (#57 in the periodic table), which interestingly is derived from the Greek word for "hidden," but I'm guessing its chemical meaning probably isn't relevant.
Ahh, once again it is proved that I have no life once school gets out for the summer (I teach for a living).
Hope this helps!
Re: The "rou" in Senrou
on 2004-07-04 02:57 am (UTC)Thank you! It is an incredibly rare character. I have three Japanese-English and three Japanese-Japanese character dictionaries, and it isn't in any of them, so my guess is that it's actually a Chinese character whose usage in Japanese is next to nonexistant. If I knew more (read 'any') Chinese, I'd have a crack at a Japanese-Chinese dictionary and see what it has to say on the subject.
I did find 'rou' in one of my J-E dictionaries, but it's listed in a compound meaning prison, and has no entry of its own. So yeah, it looks like the 'lock on a door' meaning is the one we're going for.
And hey, some of us don't have a life even at work, which is why I find myself scripting essays like this;)
no subject
on 2004-11-30 02:12 pm (UTC)