Re: [tlug] The wrong kanji

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Bart Mathias <mathias@example.com> wrote:
> Should I be embarrassed? I taught Japanese for 30 years (Inidiana
> University, University of Hawaii) and it never occurred to me that one of
> those styles was Chinese, and maybe I should point out the difference to my
> students.
>
> In fact, the "Chinese" style is the only one used in my Ueda's _Daijiten_.
> _Kangorin_ alternates between the two
> apparently depending on whether the kanji is Jouyou or not.

I dug out a couple of old Japanese-English dictionaries I have - one
published in 1955 and the other looking older, but without a
publishing date (not one I've been able to find yet in any case).  The
1955 one has only the kaisha character we all know and love: "会社", but
the other one has only an... older(?) one that has not only one
character different, but *both* characters are different.  Was this a
result of a simplification move for kanji?  Is that older style still
used at all?  In any case, based on those printed dictionaries from an
earlier era (I hope I can somehow figure out the publishing date of
the earlier one - which sold for Y250 [and the 1955 one for Y300]).  I
would think, however, that the example Dave sent is half-new and
half-old - or were there two steps in the evolution of the character?

Lyle