# 深海庭



## Epiroh

Hi,

I do not speak Japanese, but I am curious about a Japanese sign. In Ostend, Belgium there is a garden which (from the leaflet) is called 深海庭, _Shin Kai Tei_, 'profound ocean garden'. Above the entrances there are signs with different characters:




I would guess this is a different way to spell the name of the garden, but maybe not. The middle character looks like a hiragana 'a' (?) but that's as far as I'm getting.

Can someone explain? Domo arigato :^)


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## M Mira

It looks like an artsy cursive of the name, written from right to left.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

When we write Japanese horizontally, we write from left to right.
However, in old Japan, they wrote from right to left.
The signs is　庭海深, probably, and it is read as "shin kai tei"　as well. The left and the right are opposite, you know?

庭 is written in 行書 style, which is a-little-broken-handwriting style.
海 is written in 草書, which is a-very-broken-handwriting style. ひらがな comes from kanji written in 草書.
So you can see a resembling character like あ.

深 is written in 行書 style, but I think it's a little different kanji.
I don't know why, but probably the old style of 深　is a little different from today's 深.

In conclusion, the sign also is written as Shin Kai Tei.


Oops, M Mira already answered more concisely.


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## M Mira

Also, here's a list of various ways to write 深 before standardization.


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## Epiroh

Thank you very much, both, for concise and detailed answers 



> 海 is written in 草書, which is a-very-broken-handwriting style. ひらがな comes from kanji written in 草書.So you can see a resembling character like あ.



Hm... so the kana writing systems are related to (derived from?) the 草書 way of writing kanji, is that right?

One further question if I may... on the wiktionary page, it says:



> Kanji[edit]
> See also:
> Category:Japanese terms spelled with 深
> 深
> 
> (grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)
> 
> 1. deep, close, thick, profound
> 
> Readings[edit]
> 
> • On: しん (shin)
> • Kun: ふかい (fukai), ふかさ (fukasa), ふかめる (fukameru)



What are those 'Kun', non-_shin _readings?


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## M Mira

Epiroh said:


> One further question if I may... on the wiktionary page, it says:
> 
> What are those 'Kun', non-_shin _readings?


深い(fukai)= adj. "deep"
深さ(fukasa)= n. "depth"
深める(fukameru)= v. "to deepen"


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## gengo

Epiroh said:


> In Ostend, Belgium there is a garden which (from the leaflet) is called 深海庭, _Shin Kai Tei_, 'profound ocean garden'.



That is a poor translation.  It should be "Deep Sea Garden."



> Hm... so the kana writing systems are related to (derived from?) the 草書 way of writing kanji, is that right?



Hiragana comes from kanji written very quickly (草書), while katakana comes from portions taken out of kanji written normally.



> What are those 'Kun', non-_shin _readings?



Since the readings are given in your post, I assume you are asking what kun-yomi and on-yomi are.  They are, respectively, the native Japanese pronunciation of a kanji and the Chinese-origin pronunciation of the same kanji.  Most, but not all, kanji have both kun-yomi and on-yomi.


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## Epiroh

Thank you, M Mira and gengo!



> Since the readings are given in your post, I assume you are asking what kun-yomi and on-yomi are. They are, respectively, the native Japanese pronunciation of a kanji and the Chinese-origin pronunciation of the same kanji. Most, but not all, kanji have both kun-yomi and on-yomi.



Yes, thanks, I did not realize this. I assumed that Japanese used kanji (of Chinese origin) for writing, but always native Japanese pronunciation. I'm sure I'll search and read a bit more sometime about when which pronunciation is used. But feel free to summarize


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## gengo

Epiroh said:


> But feel free to summarize



In very general terms, the kun-yomi is used for single kanji readings, including simple nouns and conjugated verbs.  The on-yomi is used for compound words (two or more kanji) and some single kanji readings.  But there are many exceptions to that.  And there are "juubako-yomi" compounds in which one kanji has the kun-yomi and one has the on-yomi, as in 重箱 (juubako), in which juu is on and bako is kun.


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## Epiroh

Thanks, gengo! I had a read of the Wikipedia section on this, but it's a pretty complicated-looking affair and yours is a very helpful summary :^)

(Funny that 重箱 is an example of itself, as it were...)


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## Isperia

Strictly speaking, 重箱読み(Juubako-yomi) means the former kanji is pronounced in on-yomi and the latter in kun-yomi.
And the reverse version (the former is kun-yomi and the latter is on-yomi) is 湯桶読み(Yuto-Yomi).

It seems like "tough construction" in English, I think.


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