I know some kanjis can be written in different variations from watching/looking at japanese/chinese calligraphy. I can even see different variations of the different parts of the kanji.
I want to know where I can learn or have a summary/guide which parts of the kanji may be disconnected and still retain its meaning. Or find the non-gothic/non-sans-serif way of writing parts of the kanji.
For example, 月 can be written with disconnected horizontal lines and 曜, the feather radicals can have non horizontal lines for the 2nd and 3rd bars and instead like the two marks on this kanji 次.
Additionally, I also know (maybe only calligraphers won’t know, but still I want to know it) where I could read about which strokes should absolutely be crossing or absolutely be longer than one stroke.
For example in english ‘n’ and ‘h’, the difference lies in the length of the left stroke. Same goes with か which, from what I know, the 2nd stroke (the downward stroke on the left) has to have it’s bottom higher than the bottom of the first stroke (but the computer fonts don’t reflect this, but you would see this with the calligraphers). Like あ should absolutely have the crossing/intersection on the last stroke with itself – it would almost look like a め but with a longer first stroke and a horizontal stroke.
4 comments
you should explain the context around your question. Hand writing are meant to be read by humans so as long as you can de read you can do what you like. Of course it won’t be the good way to write. Otherwise in calligraphy I don’t know if there in any hard rule. Kanji can have multiple forms or simplifications. There are calligraphy dictionary even apps you may consult.
To see existing variants of any given kanji (曜 in your case) you can look it up at [wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%9B%9C) or [GlyphWiki](http://en.glyphwiki.org/wiki/u66dc).
There are some fun “rules” that I can tell you
– The 2 middle ones out of the 4 short bottom stokes in 魚 are supposed to be shorter than the surronding two.
– The tiny stroke at the bottom of 太 is supposed to be pushed slightly to the left instead of exact center.
– The kanji for 口 (くち ) is not a square. its corners have some nuances. Search 口 書道 in google images to find out what I mean.
There are many more like these.
The question you are asking is like asking the difference between hand written “6” and “0”. Or the different forms of “4”, or the different forms of “a”. Legibility is just whether the scribble you made is decipherable on its own, and distinguishable from other scribbles.
It’s not really study-able the way you are describing it. It’s like trying to describe how to distinguish a cow from a horse – you just are able to. You don’t consciously think about how the horse has a longer neck or face etc. As such it would be difficult to find books – maybe penmanship or calligraphy?
Most people pick up “legibility” from their own handwriting, reading other people’s handwriting, and from teacher correction. There are very very few similars that need to be distinguished eg 日 and 曰 (that’s Chinese, sorry I can’t think of JP atm)
In this digital age, maybe this is a bit harder, so my suggestion is to browse fonts to “train your brain”. For instance さ is disconnected or connected depending on the font.