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p1anecrazyyesterday at 6:27 PM4 repliesview on HN

Is there a way for non-Japanese speakers to experience this?


Replies

gyomutoday at 10:23 AM

If it makes you feel better, the vast majority of modern day Japanese speakers cannot read this either.

It is cursive script, and only specialized academics/people with extensive training in calligraphy/etc. would know how to read it.

Interestingly enough this is an area where machine learning has been extremely effective:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.09433

omoikaneyesterday at 6:39 PM

It's mostly pictures and not much text, except for the initial popup you see which is the usual cookie consent prompt (left button = minimum required, right button = agree to all). But looks like British Museum also has this book if you want an English interface:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1973-0723-...

If you are asking about the text written on the pages themselves, it takes a bit more effort unless you are familiar with archaic script. I can make out some of them as guidelines on how to draw the patterns.

srikyesterday at 7:51 PM

There is a i18n “English” button on top right. Unless you meant something else.

sreanyesterday at 6:30 PM

I used google translate.