Tuesday, November 7, 2017

kanji - Why is 未来 read as あした?


The slogan of the 2020 Olympics in Japan is



未来{あした} をつかもう (Discover tomorrow)



Why is it read as あした? I did not find a standardised dictionary with that reading, however I found あす as a reading in a dictionary for names. It seems it would be the same if it were 明日, but I still don't understand.



If it's for an aesthetic reason, does that mean I could put 'beautiful' readings onto Kanji I like? (Of course, only to a degree that is)



Answer



明日 can be read as either あす or あした. あした is more common in speech, while あす is more common in prose (like poetry) and formal documents, as well as older texts.


未来 is normally read as みらい (音読み) of course, and occasionally みく (訓読み). Poetically, it's also あす, as you point out, but this is uncommon. As in English, "tomorrow" is being used to mean "the future", as in phrases like "the world of tomorrow".


In this case, あした is applied more stylistically than anything else, and if there weren't the furigana above the characters I doubt anybody would read it that way. It's not uncommon for kanji to be given one-off stylistic readings that are non-standard. For example:



とある魔術の禁書目録{インデックス}, a popular anime and manga


泥棒{あなた}は信用出来ない (from the question linked below)



Why do some kanji have furigana that are not valid readings? discusses a very similar situation.



In this case too, reading 未来 as あした is stylistic rather than standard, used for artistic and advertising effect. Plus, it stands out as memorable as all slogans should. It's suggesting "world of tomorrow" (i.e. the future) in the poetic sense, just as is seen in other languages like French and English (just not in common speech because it sounds too ridiculous).


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