Question Kanji Puzzle Time: What Other Word(s) Can Be Made from 明, 日, 香, and 村?

vickyamin · 15 Jul 2020

Hello all, nice to meet you! I'm a writer from Indonesia, and currently working on a fiction about Japan and its culture.

So I'm currently giving my characters some puzzles where they need to arrange a set of Kanjis which answer is 明日香村 (Asuka-Mura). However, I want them to mis-read it and arrange it to something else but sadly, I have near-zero skill in Kanji Could you guys please help me on this? What else can be arranged with letters 明, 日, 香, and 村? I hope there are other rational word(s) that can be made up out of these

Thank you so much in advance!

Toritoribe · 16 Jul 2020

There are 24 permutations of those four kanji.

明日香村
明日村香
明香日村
明香村日
明村日香
明村香日
日明香村
日明村香
日香明村
日香村明
日村明香
日村香明
香明日村
香明村日
香日明村
香日村明
香村明日
香村日明
村明日香
村明香日
村日明香
村日香明
村香明日
村香日明

Among these ones, only a few permutations can make sense.

1. 日村香明 Himura Takaaki (or Yoshiaki)
2. 日村明香 Himura Akika
3. 香村日明 Kōmura Haruaki
4. 香日村明 Kasugamura Akira
5. 明村日香 Akimura Haruka
6. 明日村香 Asumura Kaori

These are all people's names (surname - given name), but not so common ones. (#1, 3, 4 are male names, and the rest are female names.) Other than people's names, 明日村香 could be a fictional name of a fragrance "Asumura-kō", but not common, either. Anyway, these are all "proper noun" rather than "word".

To tell the truth, since 明日香村 is a relatively well-known village, Japanese people or people who are fluent in Japanese enough to be able to find out these possible names would be able to get the correct answer 明日香村 relatively easily. Probably to get the correct answer would be easier than to think of these wrong answers, in my impression.

vickyamin · 16 Jul 2020

Toritoribe said:
There are 24 permutations of those four kanji.

明日香村
明日村香
明香日村
明香村日
明村日香
明村香日
日明香村
日明村香
日香明村
日香村明
日村明香
日村香明
香明日村
香明村日
香日明村
香日村明
香村明日
香村日明
村明日香
村明香日
村日明香
村日香明
村香明日
村香日明

Among these ones, only a few permutations can make sense.

1. 日村香明 Himura Takaaki (or Yoshiaki)
2. 日村明香 Himura Akika
3. 香村日明 Kōmura Haruaki
4. 香日村明 Kasugamura Akira
5. 明村日香 Akimura Haruka
6. 明日村香 Asumura Kaori

These are all people's names (surname - given name), but not so common ones. (#1, 3, 4 are male names, and the rest are female names.) Other than people's names, 明日村香 could be a fictional name of a fragrance "Asumura-kō", but not common, either. Anyway, these are all "proper noun" rather than "word".

To tell the truth, since 明日香村 is a relatively well-known village, Japanese people or people who are fluent in Japanese enough to be able to find out these possible names would be able to get the correct answer 明日香村 relatively easily. Probably to get the correct answer would be easier than to think of these wrong answers, in my impression.

WHOA SUGOII!

Thank you so much for your amazing effort in listing the 24 permutations -- and even narrowing it down to those 6 people's name and one fragrance name (maybe I can make one fragrance product using this name someday so it will be common ). I think I would go with one of the people's names because, even though you think they're not so common, all of them still sound believable to me

Also thank you for sharing your thoughts on Japanese people that would easily get the correct answer to the anagram. I'll figure some sort of a plot twist so it will be a non-Japanese person who encounters this puzzle.

This is so helpful! Thanks once again, Toritoribe!

Question Kanji Puzzle Time: What Other Word(s) Can Be Made from 明, 日, 香, and 村?

vickyamin

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Toritoribe

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vickyamin

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