Horizontal and vertical writing can be used simultaneously. The kanji are jukujikun , from Chinese 海豹 (literally “ sea leopard ”). This ancient Chinese writing form has a particular expressiveness and magic. You can select, move, resize and change the font of whatever you want to write, mixing kanji, katakana and the Latin alphabet as you like. But there is no exact rules. Given all this, I've made a sub-site for the list above, bestiary.japanesewithanime.com, which also contains how an animal word is normally spelled, besides their kanji, in case you really need to know. Japanese online directory, Japanese gift stores, Japanese shopping, Japanese stores Graphic and Traditional patterns in Kanji Characters If you are looking for things your name for Kanji character, this is the site to find any product. In addition kanji can always be written from top to bottom. Artist-calligrapher Nadja Van Ghelue shows you how to brush small seal script in various video demonstrations. Pronunciation (Irregular reading) あ ざ らし [àzáꜜràshì] (Nakadaka – [2]) IPA : [a̠za̠ɾa̠ɕi] Noun . Word for "Animal" in Japanese The word for "animal" in Japanese is doubutsu 動物, written with the kanji for "move" and "thing," so, animals are literally "moving things." In addition, Japanese Buddhism has a set of elements, the godai, which vary from the Chinese elements. Japanese kanji are written from left to right (European way) since Meiji period. The interface is in Japanese, but it’s relatively easy and intuitive to use it (don’t stress about all the strange kanji: green button means proceed, red means back). They each have a representative kanji symbol. They also include Earth, Water, and Fire, but Air and Void (sky or heaven) are used rather than Wood and Metal. 海豹 (あざらし) • a seal, specifically the earless seal or true seal; Usage notes Each of these has a representation in kanji script. Seal script is an ancient form of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy with a special appeal to the artistic eye. They were written from right to left before.