Singularity on the Plane

Did you know that in Windows XP’s IME we can input a kanji by drawing it? (Does Ubuntu, and Linux in general, have it?) I will outlay the steps here.

Obviously you need to have the IME installed. See this Wikibook page. For illustration, we’ll use Notepad. So fire up Notepad, switch the IME on, and input any character on the keyboard. I use ‘a’, which the IME will convert to hiragana ‘あ’ on the fly:

The magic key is ‘F5′, which will launch the IME pad. Press it and you’ll get this:

Press “OK” and you’ll get this:

On the screen pictured above, you can find a kanji by its radical (部首, bushu). However that’s not what we’re interested in right now. To input by drawing, click the top-leftmost button (circled red). You’ll get this:

Here’s the explanation for the UI elements:

1. This is the drawing area. You draw the strokes here by holding the left mouse button and dragging.
2. Matching shapes (and not-so-matching shapes) you draw in (1) will be listed here. If you’ve found the kanji you want, just click it.
3. 戻す (modosu) means “to return”. Click this to undo the last stroke.
4. 消去 (shoukyo) means “erasing”. Click this to clear the drawing area.

One thing to note is that stroke order matters! Try to draw a perfectly matching shape but with a random stroke order, and chances are the program will not give the kanji you want.

The power of this tool cannot be underestimated. For one thing, it allows you to quickly find a printed character you see. Suppose you went to a mini market and see a notice written in Japanese (for example, in Circle K Terban, Yogyakarta). If there is an unknown kanji there, you won’t have any information other than its shape. Finding the kanji through the method explained above will be very easy. After you have the digital form of the character, you can find its readings, compounds, and meanings in electronic dictionaries.

Second, you can use it to input rare kanji easily. Suppose for some insane reason you want to write “koe” (sound) using the rare kanji 聲 instead of the normal 声 (see for example “Endless Rain” by X Japan). You know its sound (no pun intended), but you can’t find it by typing in the IME because that kanji is archaic (even EDICT don’t list it). However, by drawing it you can find the kanji.

The third is for writing names. When IME don’t recognize a name, you can input it by drawing character per character.

We will learn 3 shapes this time!

First is the plant shape. Observe the blue shapes in these kanji:

草 is the kanji for grass (kusa), 花 is the kanji for flower (hana), and 菜 is the kanji for vegetables (na). I call the blue shape the “plant” shape. Here’s an image of two plants:

For decoration, I made the flowers bloom :). Note that you can see the roots underground. The superimposed image should make it clear why it is called the plant shape:

Of course the discussion wouldn’t be complete without the stroke order:

OK, the plant shape… I’ll guarantee that you will meet it often (and many times in a plant-related kanji). The other two shapes are less common but I bring it here because they are similar to the plant shape.

Next is the bridge shape. See the blue shapes in the following kanji:

算 is the kanji for calculation (san), 鼻 is the kanji for nose (hana), and 械 is the kanji for machine (kai). This shape is devilish because it is so similar to the previous one. Having a completely different mnemonic is a must if you don’t want things mixed up. Look at the image below:

It is a nice bridge that allows you to cross the river! The image fits well with the shape:

Hence it is called the “bridge” shape. Remember, the key point is the bend on the left vertical stroke. Plant roots don’t bend sideways because, well… probably because gravity. Or is it because they can “smell” more water below and try to dig downwards as far as they could? Whatever, here’s the stroke order:

Now for the last one, the fence shape. Take a good look at the blue shapes below:

黄 means yellow (ki), 散 means to scatter (chi.ru), and 昔 means olden days (mukashi). It’s the plant shape with an extra stroke! But I use a different mnemonic, not related to plants, so that those two aren’t mixed up. Look at my drawing below:

Why, it’s a nice fence that protects the garden… Focus on the two vertical woods, and superimpose the kanji shape:

It fits perfectly! Therefore I call it the “fence” shape. The stroke order:

I hope with those mnemonics, your kanji quest can be made easier. Happy kanji hunting!