Sunday, September 10, 2017

furigana - What does this use of kanji in ruby text mean?


In the manga らんま 1/2, a character from China says the following:



気{き}をつけるよろし、ムースは[暗器]{かくし武器}の[達人]{たつじん}よ。



My question is about [暗器]{かくし武器}. The ruby is just as I've typed it, with two tiny kanji included. As I understand it, ruby text usually gives readings in kana (furigana), but this seems like something else! If it were actually pronounced that way, wouldn't the author have written it かくし[武器]{ぶき}? I don't know how to interpret it.


My guess is that the character is pronouncing 暗器 either in Chinese or as あんき and that かくし武器 tells the reader what 暗器 means rather than how it's pronounced. Am I on the right track?




Answer



It's just an explanation of the word added like that. "暗器" (anki) is not a common word in Japanese. For example there is no entry in WWWJDIC or in goo dictionary for this word. But most people would guess the reading is probably あんき. So this "furigana" is used to explain here, as you imagined.


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