I first became interested in learning how to write names in Japanese Kanji in 2001 when I got my black belt in Aikido. When we become black belts, Aikido students get to wear a hakama (samurai style traditional pleated pants). Toyoda Shihan often translated his students’ names and have their hakama embroidered with their name in Kanji. He would often select Kanji combinations to create a meaning that would resonate with each student. It was a tradition that many of his students cherished. Those of us approaching black belt looked forward to receiving our hakama with our names translated by sensei.
Unfortunately, Toyoda Sensei passed away three months before I tested for my black belt. So, I took it upon myself to learn how to translate my name so I could have my hakama embroidered.
There are other reasons to want to have your name in Kanji, but in this article, I’d like to focus specifically on its use in calligraphy. It is important to note, however, that for westerners there are two ways to write our names in Japanese: Katakana and Kanji. Katakana, the Japanese syllabary used for foreign words, is the most practical and preferred way to write western names in Japanese. However, as calligraphers, our signatures enhance the visual appeal and aesthetic of the calligraphy. Because Katakana characters are by nature stiff and rigid, they don’t do well when written in a more cursive form. Therefore I prefer signing my calligraphy in Kanji.
Before I continue, I must say that for you to follow me along you need to know three things: The Katakana syllabary, the basic rules of reading and writing Kanji, and how to pronounced Japanese vowels and consonants.
There are two ways to translate a name in Kanji:
Phonetically – based on pronunciation.
By Meaning– based on its definition. Many names have meanings. For example the last name Woods. You can translate it phonetically such as UZZU ウッズ or by its meaning MORI 森. I prefer to write names in Kanji phonetically.
To explain the process, I am going to write my son’s name: Jasper Martinezphonetically.
The key to writing your name in Japanese is not to write it the same way as in English, but how it’s pronounced in Japanese.
Japanese words are composed of vowels, or a consonant followed by a vowel — for example, ie (no) or
The Japanese language does not have the “ L” sound. “R’s” are used to represent any “L” sounds because Japan pronounces their r’s softer than in English. The “R” in Japanese does sound a bit like an “L”. For example, Luis is RUISU. Melanie is
Since vowels always
Sometimes the sound of a consonant is extended to create a double consonant. A small ツ represents this before the consonant. Example: Eric is ERIKKU エリック
The only “J” sound that happens naturally in Japanese is JI represented by ジ. To transcribe sounds such as JA, JU, or JO the character JI is then combined with the characters YA, YU and YO respectively: ジャ,ジュ,ジョ. To transcribe the sound JE, the character JI is combined with the character E, ジェ.
When a vowel is followed by an “R”, sometimes the “R” is transcribed as an extension of the vowel represented by a dash ー. Example: Mark instead of MARUKU マルク it can be MAAKU マーク.
Most common names have a set way on how they are transcribed; you can even search them on Google Translate. Remember the most important thing is the name must sound like it does in English, not necessarily written the same way. Vowels in English are pronounced different than in Japanese. For example, Ethan is written ISSAN. You would not use the vowel “E” because in Japanese it is pronounced eh, not ee, like in English.
Let’s start with Martinez.
Divided it into syllables is MAR-TI-NEZ.
Now let’s convert that to Japanese. But we have two options: MAA TI NE ZU or MA RU TI NE ZU. In Katakana is マーテイネズ or マルテイネズ
Now let’s do Jasper:
Divided it into syllables: JAS-PER
In Japanese, it would be JA SU PA or ジャスパ in katakana.
Now that we have the katakana we can transcribe this into Kanji by looking at Kanji with those readings in a dictionary, and this can be quite a time-consuming process. There are many Kanji with the same readings, all with different meanings.
When looking for Kanji to transcribe names keep in mind the following:
1) The meaning of the Kanji. Be careful with selecting Kanji with definitions that would be offensive, vulgar, or plain silly. For example, when translating the name Mary – don’t choose the kanji 痢 for RI because it means “diarrhea.”
2) When possible, the combination of all the kanji in the name should have a coherent meaning. This is hard to do. When I translated my name, Esteban, for my hakama I had a hard time making all the kanji coherently mean something. I settled for a combination that mostly looked cool when I brushed them in calligraphy.
3) Kanji readings are divided into two categories: ON (Chinese derived reading) and KUN (Japanese native reading). It’s easier for Japanese people to read western names written in Kanji if you stick to one reading, more commonly ON readings. If you combine ON readings with KUN readings, it can get confusing. Native Japanese names almost always use KUN readings only. I usually look for ON readings when translating western names.
Here is my last name, Martinez, in Kanji: 丸庭音須.
These Kanji read MARU TEI NE SU. Except for the first kanji, all of them use the ON reading. The first one, maru, is the KUN reading. While it’s ok that I combined them, whenever possible try to use one or the other. Either the entire name is read with ON or KUN reading. Remember, if you mix them is going to make it harder for someone else to read and decipher the name.
With the above kanji combination, Martinez means “by all means, with the sound of a round garden.”
In recent years, I have taken on Toyoda Shihan’s tradition and write students name in kanji for their hakama at Zenshinkan dojo. We have two students who are getting their black belts soon which had quite challenging names.
One was Thurber. I wrote it as TORABAA with the following kanji: 寅場婀. These kanji mean tiger, place, and charming.
Another one was Guadagnoli, which I wrote as WADANORI with the following kanji: 和田乗, harmony, countryside, ride.
I know some folks frowned upon westerners writing their names in Kanji. But when I was in Japan, I had conversations about this, and the overall feeling was that for practical manners the name must be legible and the only way to guarantee that is with katakana. But overall they didn’t care or found it offensive at all. In fact, one of the crew members wrote Esteban in kanji for me. He wrote it strictly phonetically like this 衛 司 禔 幡, and said: “If I see that I could read that it says, Esteban”. And by the way, he didn’t just write it on the spot, he spent quite some time digging through kanji in a dictionary.
Many students who had the chance of having Toyoda Sensei write their name in kanji may take that for granted and not think much of it at all. But for me, missing the chance was one of the motivations that set me on this path and do something I wouldn’t have otherwise taken an in interest in learning. Every name is a new challenge, and it allows me to learn new kanji and different combinations. Doing this also keeps the tradition of students having their name in kanji on their hakama going in our dojo.