I've wondered so I'll ask

[Ruth Rice]

Hi Brian,
Maybe it is somewhere on your sight or it has been posted before, but I was wondering what the name of your magazine means? Also how do you pronounce the name? Normally the bito would be pronounce beeto wouldn't it? Not sure about the hyphen.
Gee I like this new board.
Thanks
Happy New Year
Ruth

[Brian]

Hi Ruth,

The name Koi-Bito is a play on the Japanese word for lover. This is how you would refer to a boyfriend or girlfriend, and is spelled with the Chinese characters —ö�l - The one on the left meaning love, and the one on the right meaning person.

I substituted�@Œï (koi)�@for —ö and voila, you have�@Œï�l which means koi person, but still has the nuance of referring to something you love. The pronunciation of bito is indeed beeto, and the hyphen only serves to break the word down and make it easier for people to pronounce.

Make sense? :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

[Ruth Rice]

Hi Brian,
That was a good explanation and I'm glad I asked. I am surprised I had not heard this name before since so many people are so passionate about these fish. What a neat name!
Ruth

[Brian]

Hmmm...a pity that the Chinese characters didn't seem to display correctly though. Can anybody see them correctly?

[Dan Blatt]

No - can't see them (the chinese characters)

[Brian]

I've edited that post, and can now see them myself. You'll need to have Japanese shift-jis encoding on your machine or either unicode to be able to see them though...

[paulw]

HI BRIAN,
i would also like to thank you for the explanation and how it came about, very fasanating and i can see the chinese charactors alright.

paul

[luke frisbee]

Somehow i found that out, but it was of a more erotic nature?
Brian could you post photos of the characters of certain common koi-related names somewhere on here. "koi" "pond" "Koi Pond" "showa" "Gosanke" etc?
it'd be a great reference for those that want to "japanese" their ponds, and aid artists that want to incorporate the words into their art. For instance i do a little raku every once in awhile, my wife does stained glass, and I could really see how Banner makers for koi shows and clubs could benefit from a quick source being established.

[paulw]

hi luke
good point it would be good to have the charactors as we viit alot of clubs ponds in summer and you find on some the writing set in tiles , glass etc built into there pond design in some way.

paul

[Andrew]

If you get a copy of Koi Bito, any edition, Brian explains the meaning/origin of the magazine name on the last page, the page facing the inside back cover.