Comments on: Crazy kanji: what’s the highest stroke count?

By: B

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:46:47 +0000

I’d vote for 鬱 as being the worst kanji, as it’s hardly possible to write AND in relatively common use, unlike the other ones mentioned. Ive run into it a couple of times already, it’s feels like wth is this.

By: dwayne2d3d

dwayne2d3d — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:23:02 +0000

wow!!
just simply WOW!!!
i was going to actually get on you by saying that the highest stroke counts were just tripling and “quadripling” the same kanji together,
but BAM!!!
you wrote a unique kanji with high stroke count!!…..and a runner up.
i thoroughly enjoyed reading this article your wrote
“the twilight zone section had me rotfl…

By: Bogus

Bogus — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:02:42 +0000

Great article!

According to wikipedia (without actual source) the monster kanji with 84 strokes has 2 variations,
one with the reading “taito” and another one with the readings “daito”, “otodo”.
The first has the same appearance as the one in your article and the other differs in having the first “dragon” between the “clouds”.
Both are supposed to mean “the appearance of a dragon in a flight”.

By: John

John — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:25:28 +0000

Wow! Impressed!

By: Lloyd Vincent

Lloyd Vincent — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:58:31 +0000

@MF : Thanks for the tip. I wonder if the meaning is the same in Chinese?

@Hellstorm : Not many people are familiar with those old forms, though. And the article is about stroke count more than difficulty. (there’s not really a good way to judge difficulty) You’ve got a point though, 鬱 is probably harder to remember because it’s such an unusual combination of elements.

@Ryan : I eat 22 stroke kanji for breakfast! Well… lunch actually (鰻)

By: Ryan Taylor

Ryan Taylor — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:43:25 +0000

Wow, good find! Makes you realise that actually, having to piece together a 22 stroke kanji is child’s play in comparison to some of those beasts!

By: Hellstorm

Hellstorm — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:26:09 +0000

But the 性 variant is also not difficult: It’s just 靈 + 覺 (Old forms of 霊 and 覚). For me, 鬱 is much more complicated.

By: MF

MF — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:28:15 +0000

Just a tidbit: The second character under “The Twilight Zone” is pronounced “nang” in Chinese. (Not that I’ve ever heard anyone say it — I only noticed in the dictionary because it is so hard.)

By: Lloyd Vincent

Lloyd Vincent — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:27:13 +0000

@August not sure if sei is the most challenging or not, but might be the most work.

@David ah yes, I love those games.

By: David Baeckelandt

David Baeckelandt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:18:07 +0000

Great post – extremely helpful and great fodder for those late-night, back of the napkin kanji-games!