Ghost characters explained

are erroneous kanji included in the Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS X 0208. 12 of the 6,355 kanji characters are ghost characters.

Overview

In 1978, the Ministry of Trade and Industry established the standard JIS C 6226 (later JIS X 0208). This standard defined 6349 characters as JIS Level 1 and 2 Kanji characters. This set of Kanji characters is called "JIS Basic Kanji". At this time, the following four lists of Kanji characters were used as sources.[1]

  1. Kanji Table for Standard Codes (Draft): IPSJ Kanji Code Committee (1971)
  2. National Land Administrative Districts Directory: Geographical Society of Japan (1972)
  3. Nippon Seimei's family name table: Nippon Life (1973, no longer extant)
  4. Basic Kanji for Administrative Information Processing: Administrative Management Agency (1975)

At the time of the establishment of the standard, the authority for each character was not clearly stated, and it was pointed out that some characters had unknown meanings and usage examples. The term "ghost character" was coined from "ghost word", meaning a word that is included in dictionaries but has no practical use.[2] The most common examples are "妛" and "彁". These characters were never mentioned in the Kangxi Dictionary or the Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, a comprehensive collection of ancient Chinese character books.

In 1997, the drafting committee for the revised standard, led by its chairman, Koji Shibano, and Hiroyuki Sasahara of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, investigated the literature referred to in the drafting of the 1978 standard. It was revealed that many of the characters that had been considered ghost characters were actually kanji used in place names.

According to the survey, prior to the drafting of the 1978 standard, the Administrative Management Agency had compiled eight lists of Kanji characters, including the above 1–3, in 1974, entitled "Frequency of Use and Correspondence Analysis Results of Kanji Characters for Selection of Standard Kanji Characters for Administrative Information Processing." This is accompanied by a list of kanji characters and their original sources. The results of this correspondence analysis, rather than the original sources, were referred to when selecting the JIS basic kanji at that time. Of these, many ghost characters were found to be included in those based on the Comprehensive list of administrative divisions of national land and List of Kanji characters for personal names by Nippon Life Insurance Company. In particular, the List of Kanji characters for personal names had no original source at the time of drafting the first standard, and its contents have been pointed out to be inadequate.[3]

In response to these results, the Standard Revision Committee restored the 1972 edition of the Comprehensive list of administrative divisions of national land from its proofreading history, and checked all the kanji appearing in the book against all the pages to confirm the examples. In addition, as a replacement for the List of Kanji characters for personal names, which no longer exists, they conducted an exhaustive literature search, including a comparative study of the NTT and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation telephone directory databases and a survey of more than 30 ancient and modern character books.

12 kanji characters remain unidentified. 3 appear to be typos. Perhaps by coincidence, there are eight characters that were listed in the Japanese ancient dictionary or the Chinese ancient dictionary. As for "彁", no concrete source has been found.[1]

Ghost characters have already been adopted into international standards such as Unicode, and changes to these standards are likely to cause compatibility problems, making it virtually impossible to modify or remove ghost characters.

List of ghost characters

The results of the aforementioned survey by Hiroyuki Sasahara et al. are summarized in Annex 7, "Detailed Description of Ward Locations", of JIS X 0208:1997. This section excerpts some of them.

JIS X 0208:1997 compiles the details of the sources of 72 characters whose sources have been identified, mainly those not listed in both Morohashi's Dai Kan-Wa Jiten and Kadokawa's Shin Jigen. However, this also includes characters that have been found to be misspelled by the original sources.

The list of delimiters appended as "source authority" in Annex 7 of JIS X 0208:1997 lists 72 characters, but the detailed text does not list "鰛(82-60)", which is only 71 characters.

Character! style="white-space:nowrap"
AddressSource/Usage
There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 藤垈 (Fujinuta), 相垈 (Ainuta), 大垈 (Onuta), all in Yamanashi Prefecture
52-21There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 垉六 (Horoku), Aichi Prefecture
54-19There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 広岾 (Hiroyama), Kyoto Prefecture
55-78Based on Nippon Seimei's family name table. There are also examples in the NTT telephone directory.
60-81Dictionary of Japanese Place Names. 石橸 (Ishidaru), Shizuoka Prefecture.
61-73There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 汢の川 (Nutanokawa), Kochi Prefecture.
66-83Based on Nippon Seimei's family name table. There are also examples in the NTT telephone directory.
67-46There is an example of usage in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory, but it is a typo in the original source. 穃原 (Youbaru, 榕原) in Okinawa Prefecture.
68-68There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 粐蒔沢 (Nukamakizawa), Akita Prefecture.
68-70There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 粭島 (Sukumojima), Yamaguchi Prefecture.
68-72There is an example in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory, but it is a typo in the original source. 粫田 (Uruchida, 糯田) in Fukushima Prefecture.
68-84There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 糘尻 (Sukumojiri), Hiroshima Prefecture.
71-19There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 膤割 (Yukiwari), Kumamoto Prefecture.
77-32There is an example in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory, but it does not exist. 軅飛 (Takatobu), Fukushima Prefecture.
78-93There are examples in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory. 小鍄 (Kogasugai), Yamagata Prefecture.
82-94There is an example in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory, but it is a typo in the original source. 鵈沢 (Misagosawa, 鵃沢), Fukushima Prefecture.

Unknown sources

JIS X 0208:1997 treats the 12 characters in the table below as "Authority unknown", "Unknown", or "Unidentifiable" because it is not certain which of the four aforementioned lists of kanji is the source of the characters.

Since ghost characters are "kanji that do not exist", the readings are given "for convenience".

CharacterCodeSupposed pronunciationSourceOther appearances
チョ choOrigin unknown.It is in the Jiyun abridgment, but it may be miswritten.
52-63デン denOrigin unknown. Possibly a typo of "㕓".Written in the Wagokuhen.
54-12シ shiThis character is cited in the National Land Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. May be a typo of "".It is in the Jikyōshū abridgment, but it may be miswritten.
55-27カ kaセイ seiSource unknown. Possibly a typo of "彊" etc.None.
57-43ウ uトチ tochiThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a variant or typo of "栩" etc.Zhonghua Zihai and others.
58-83ヒ hiThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a typo of "杲" etc. It is found in the Japanese Hokke Sandaibu Nanjiki, but maybe a variant or a typo of "罪".
59-91ケン kenThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a typo of "橳" etc. It is found in the Yiqiejing yinyi.
60-57ル ruロウ rouThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a typo of "境". ("Popular calligraphy since the Song and Yuan Dynasties") published by the Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica of the Republic of China in 1930.
74-12ジョウ jouモム momuThe Basic Kanji for Administrative Information Processing is used as the source (Meiji Mutual Life Insurance Company Kanji Code Table), but there are no examples.It is found in the Shinsen Jikyō.
74-57ネ neナイ naiThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a typo of "祢".Shinsen Jikyō, Ruiju Myōgishō and others.
79-64ギョク gyokuニン ninThe site is cited in the National Land and Administrative Districts Directory, but it is not there. Possibly a miswriting of "閏".It's listed on Guangyun, but it is probably a typo.
81-50シュウ shuジュン junThe source of the information is the Nihon Seimei Jinmei Chart,but the original source is not available.It is found in the Ruiju Myōgishō.

Possible typos

Some of the characters of unknown authority are believed to have been miswritten by the standard's creator.

Treatment in dictionaries

Since the establishment of the standard, the policy for compiling dictionaries has been to publish character books that are based on the assumption that all JIS basic Kanji characters are listed. For ghost characters, it is not possible to refer to past sources. Therefore, their treatment differed depending on the dictionaries and individual characters as follows.

Makeshift readings assigned

In equipment that implements JIS basic Kanji characters, they are often assigned a phonetic reading. Some dictionaries also list these makeshift readings. Hiroyuki Sasahara points out that these readings may have been given based on a research report by the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (1982) and published materials by NEC (1982) and IBM Japan (1983).[5]

Regarded as variations of similar characters

Some have assigned "駲" as a variant of "馴"[6] and "軅" as a variant of "軈".[7] None of these sources provide a source.

The character "妛" may be a typo of the very similar character "Chinese: " (the upper "山" becomes "屮"), and it is found in the Dai Kan-Wa Jiten and Kangxi Dictionary.[8] This is also introduced in the JIS X 0208:1997 survey with an example of implicit merging with an authoritative source. These two characters are also merged into the same code point in Unicode.

Individual interpretations

Since "竜" is a variant of "龍", there is an interpretation that "槞" is a variant of "櫳". Some dictionaries consider "鵈"="耳(ear)"+"鳥(bird)" to be the character for black kites.

Explained as unknown

After the results of the research above were published, these contents were generally adopted in dictionaries. The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten published a supplemental volume in 2000; the letters 垈, 垉, 岾, 橸, 汢, 粭, 糘, 膤, 軅 and 鵈 were recorded there. And Kadokawa's Shin Jigen (New Character Source) was revised in 2017 to include all JIS standards first through fourth, including ghost characters.

Character's remains

National Standards!Unicode 1.1!!JIS X 0208
(Japan)!!GB2312
(China)!!CNS 11643
(Taiwan)!!KS C 5601
(South Korea)

U+599B
Japanese:
(562C)
Chinese:
(265A)
Chinese:
(2553)
Korean: -

U+95A0
Japanese:
(6F60)
Chinese:
(4368)
Chinese:
(457B)
Korean: -

U+5CBE
Japanese:
(5633)
Chinese:
(7D5A)
Chinese: -Korean:
(6F40)

Since Chinese characters (including Japanese kanji) have been used in East Asian countries since ancient times and have been handed down mainly by handwriting, there have arisen characters with slightly different writing styles from country to country or within a single country, so-called variant Chinese characters. Unicode did not adopt all variations, and characters with only slight differences were inclusive and registered.

On the other hand, combining simple parts of a Chinese characters to create another character has also been done in different countries and regions. As a result, the same Chinese characters may be invented in different countries by coincidence with different (sometimes identical) meanings.

As mentioned above, it is presumed that the Japanese ghost character "妛" was originally just "", which is a combination of "山" and "女", but with an accidental "一" in between. On the other hand, there is a Chinese character in China "Chinese: " which is a combination of "屮", "一", and "女" Which is also a variant of "媸". However, in Unicode, "妛", which did not originally exist in Japan, was encompassed because it happened to be similar to "Chinese: ". Moreover, the Japanese character "妛", which is a mistake, was registered as a Unicode character.

Also, the Japanese ghost character "閠" (lower part is "玉") is thought to be a misspelling for "閏" (lower part is "王"). (A 16th-century manuscript of the Japanese 15th-century Wagokuhen also has the character "閠", but it is a solitary example.) On the other hand, the Chinese character in China "閠" is a kind of variant of "閏", which is not a misspelling. This was also unified in Unicode.

Some believe that the Japanese ghost character "岾" is a Kokuji (a uniquely Japanese kanji) meaning bald mountains, and was originally a misspelling of "岵". In Korea, however, this character was created as a Chinese character meaning mountain pass. This was also unified in Unicode.

Contemporary use

Since the publishing of the standard, examples of ghost characters have appeared along with their widespread use.

The "宜", the title of the deputy manager of a Japanese shrine, is sometimes misused as "宜." (ネ or 衤) In some cases, the Japanese surname "谷" is mistaken for "谷." (木 or 扌) Japanese folklorist Motoji Niwa introduced the surname "芸凡" (Akiōshi) in his book.[9]

The Asahi Shimbun database contained the name "埼玉自会" printed in the February 23, 1923 edition of The Asahi Shimbun, but when it was digitized, it was incorrectly labeled "埼玉自会." It has now been corrected.[10]

Examples of use in fiction

Japanese tokusatsu television series Gosei Sentai Dairanger features a character named "嘉挧" (Kaku). The name is taken from the ancient Chinese statesman Jia Xu (賈詡), but the characters have been replaced by ghost characters because the character "詡" is not registered in JIS X 0208.

The book 5A73, by Japanese mystery writer Yuji Yomisaka, begins with a series of murders in which the ghost character "暃" is written on the bodies of the victims.[11]

The music game Beatmania IIDX includes a song titled "閠槞彁の願い" that uses ghost characters. According to the comments on the song, the pronunciation is "unpronounceable to humans" and is tentatively called "Gyokurōka no Negai" (ぎょくろうかのねがい).[12]

Similar cases in Unicode

Unicode's CJK Unified Ideographs also have characters whose inclusion history is unknown and are sometimes called "ghost characters" as well.

For example, it has been pointed out that the character "螀" (U+8780), which was also registered in Unicode because it was included in the CCITT Chinese Primary Set, may be a typographical error that was adopted without sufficiently checking the source.[13]

was added by Monotype Imaging to its mathematical sets in 1972 for unknown reasons.It has since been included in Unicode.

In the CJK Compatibility block of Unicode 1.0, there is a square version of the Japanese word for "(Thai) baht", written in katakana script. The CJK codepoint,, is documented in subsequent versions of the standard as "a mistaken, unused representation" and users are directed to instead.[14] Consequently, only a few computer fonts have any content for this codepoint and its use is deprecated.[15]

(The Japanese for "baht" is Japanese: {{big|'''バ''' . However, the reference glyph (㌬) and the character name correspond to Japanese: {{big|'''パ''' (from English "parts").)

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: . 1997 . ja . ja:7ビット及び8ビットの2バイト情報交換用符号化漢字集合 . 7-bit and 8-bit 2-byte information exchange encoded kanji set.
  2. Book: 笹原宏之 (Hiroyuki Sasahara) . . 2007 . 978-4-385-36263-2 . 212, 788 . ja . ja:国字の位相と展開 . Phases and Development of the National Script.
  3. Web site: 笹原宏之 (Hiroyuki Sasahara) . 2019-04-09 . ja:第9回 民間の名字ランキング ——日本に多い名字とは?(4) . Vol. 9: Ranking of Surnames in the Private Sector — What are the most common surnames in Japan? (4) . 2023-09-03 . Taishukan . ja.
  4. Book: 笹原宏之 (Hiroyuki Sasahara). . 2006 . 4-00-430991-3 . . 82 . ja . ja:日本の漢字 . Japanese Kanji.
  5. Web site: 比留間直和 (Naokazu Hiruma) . 2011-08-22 . ja:幽霊文字の読み、どこから — 変換辞書のはなし5 . Where do ghost characters come from? . 2023-09-24 . . ja.
  6. Book: 戸川芳郎 (Yoshio Togawa). . 2016 . 978-438-5-14048-3 . 4th . ja . ja:漢辞海.
  7. Book: 鎌田正, 米山寅太郎 (Tadashi Kamada & Toratarō Yoneyama). Taishūkan Shoten . 2011 . 978-446-9-03163-8 . 2nd . ja . ja:新漢語林.
  8. Book: Izuru . . . 1998 . 978-400-0-80111-9 . 5th . ja . Shinmura Izuru.
  9. Book: 丹羽基二 (Motoji Niwa) . Houbunkan . 1998 . 978-4-990-05847-0 . 165 . ja . ja:苗字のはなし2 . No Surname 2.
  10. Web site: 比留間 直和 (Naokazu Hiruma) . 2011-09-05 . ja:大正十二年の幽霊文字 . Ghost Characters of 1923 . 2023-09-10 . ja.
  11. Book: 詠坂雄二 (Yūji Yomisaka) . 5A73 . . 2022 . 9784334914745 . ja.
  12. Web site: E-amusement. ja:閠槞彁の願い . 2023-09-10 . beatmania IIDX 28 BISTROVER . ja.
  13. Web site: Yasuoka . Koichi . http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/publications/1997-08-29.pdf . Yasuoka . Motoko . ja:「唡」はなぜJIS X 0221に含まれているのか —Unicode幽霊字研究— . Why is "唡" included in JIS X 0221? . . 1997 . ja.
  14. Book: The Unicode Standard, Version 15.1 . CJK compatibility 330033FF . https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3300.pdf . 3327334C.
  15. Web site: CJK Type CJK Fonts, Character Sets & Encodings. All CJK. All of the time. . Ken . Lunde . March 26, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160629215711/blogs.adobe.com/CCJKType/2016/03/bahts-is-parts.html . 29 June 2016 . dead . Adobe Inc..