Gigantenormous Kanji

[Johnathan]

This is a silly question, but... Are there any Kanji that are bigger than these two? solon.org/cgi-bin/j-e/S=48/inline/dokanji?PP=&RR=&SS=30&BB=&QQ=&YY=&WW=&EE=&scope=h Stroke-wise, I mean. The dictionary says there's none, but I quit looking them up at 50. And there might be some Chinese that are bigger.

 

[Ewok85]

Id say that theres some thats harder, the top one is mearly the kanji for horse 2 times and the bottom one is speak, thread (twice) and bird

 

[Maciamo]

My kanji dictionary (including all the 6000+ kanji used in Japanese) doesn't have any other kanji with 30 strokes or more than these 2. But I wouldn't be surprise that more complicated ones exist in Chinese.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I Never Could Figure Out How....

they can make out all those little lines in 1 Kanji in a newspaper or paperback. Even with a magnifing glass, it looks like a black dot not quite filled in! I guess they figure it by content, or you get used to reading FINE print !

Frank

 

[m477]

Surprising enough, this one means "many horses".

 

[NANGI]

Konnichiwa Minasan!

"Hyou(Todoroki)" means "many horses" and this Kanji is made by three Kanji "BA(Uma)". Kanji "BA(Uma)" means "horse".
Usually, this Kanji "Hyou(Todoroki)" is not used in Japan. But it is used as one's family name rarely.
And now, "Gou(Todoroku)" is more popular than "Hyou(Todoroki)". "Gou(Todoroku)" is made by three Kanji "Sha(Kuruma)". Kanji "Sha(Kuruma)" means "car". We are familiar with car but can not see a horse on the road.

"Gou(Todoroku)" means "many cars" originally, but it means "loud noise(of many cars)" now.

NANGI

 

[TranscendentEntropy]

there are lots of outdated and complicated characters in Kangxi dictionary. I think i saw somewhere with three dragons (ryuu) stacked, meaning the way dragons walk or something.

 

[fixelbrumpf]

they can make out all those little lines in 1 Kanji in a newspaper or paperback. Even with a magnifing glass, it looks like a black dot not quite filled in! I guess they figure it by content, or you get used to reading FINE print !

Frank

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. My English/Japanese dictionary has a pretty small font, so some kanji look like largish black specks. At least you can enlarge the text on web pages.

 

[Ewok85]

Been doing a research assignment for uni involving reading lots of pages at honda and sony about robots. The writing is absolutly TINY, have no idea how japanese people can read it.

 

[dreamer]

lol try to use a magnifying glass
my parents (who are chinese) often use one when searching for complicated words in a dictionnary

 

[kara]

It's a difficult question indeed, because everyone can create a new kanji even today(like English words). Of course it is a different thing to create a unique kanji than to make it to be an official/widespread kanji.

You can see some recently-created kanjis(usually we call them sousaku-kanji or jisaku-kanji):
辞典・用語 自作漢字集
z@||X̌||
FONTWORKS - キャンペーン

And to make a new kanji(often as a sort of word plays) don't be limited to contemporary Japan, but in ancient China, in medieval Japan and in other eras and areas. Some of them are recognized in spite of the fact that they were hardly used except for their creators. Here are some representative examples:

"ouichiza"(79 strokes - made by Koikawa Harumachi, a writer in Edo era ):
「おういちざ」について
"otodo"(84 - a Japanese clan name whose existence are a bit doubted):

"hou(byou)"(52 - most stroked in a famous Chinese(Ching dynasty) dictionary-康熙字典):

And I want to ask you Chinese(speakers), how do you pronounce/spell 康熙字典 by alphabets?

 

[Glenn]

And I want to ask you Chinese(speakers), how do you pronounce/spell 康熙字典 by alphabets?

In Mandarin Chinese (普通話 - pu3 tong1 hua4) it's kang1 xi1 zi4 dian3. Sorry, but I can't properly input pin1 yin1 (拼音).

Mandarin (普通話) tones are:
1 - high and steady pitch
2 - start low and end high
3 - start high, dip low, and end high
4 - start high and end low

 

[ax]

康熙字典 = kang xi zi dian

ax

 

[ax]

I check in 康熙字典, there's one character consist of 48 stroke
the three dragon
龍
龍龍

and
雚
豕豕豕 風

ax

 

[Glenn]

I check in 康熙字典, there's one character consist of 48 stroke
the three dragon
龍
龍龍

and
雚
豕豕豕 風

ax

Yeah, I remember my Japanese teacher saying that there was a 64-stroke kanji that was 龍 quadruplicated, which meant "tears of the dragon." Of course, there is the chance that my memory is off, as it was around four years ago....

 

[Glenn]

My kanji dictionary (including all the 6000+ kanji used in Japanese) doesn't have any other kanji with 30 strokes or more than these 2. But I wouldn't be surprise that more complicated ones exist in Chinese.

籲 is the most strokes to which I have access right now, and it means "to please the gods." It is used in the words 呼籲 (hu1 yu4), "appeal, call for," and 籲請 (yu4 qing3), "beseech." It consists of 籥 (an ancient sort of flute), which consists of 竹 (bamboo), 龠 (flute/panpipe); and 頁 (head). It is 32 strokes.

By the way, for extremely rare or old kanji, there is a great input method, which was referred to earlier by kara (at least indirectly), called Konjaku Mojikyo (今昔文字境). Here are some examples of kanji that can be created by using Mojikyo (scroll down a bit to see them). There are more than 80,000 kanji registered in this software!

 

[kara]

Thank you for teaching me, Glenn and antonxie.

BTW, Can you(or ordinal Chinese people who don't know Japanese language at all) imagine "kangxi zidian" from Japanese word "kouki jiten"? For us, Chinese words written in alphabets are always good quiz(not so easy, but not so hard) as long as we know those words in original hanzi form.

 

[ax]

You can download 康煕辞典 [kouki jiten] from this site and play with it.
《康熙字典》電子版的安裝說明：
you can search character based on number of stroke... it's all in Chinese though...

ax