what is Iron Chef Morimoto trying to say?

June 23, 2007 7:37 PM

My wife and I just had the opportunity to meet Iron Chef Morimoto and he signed a menu for us. I can read Japanese up to maybe the 3rd grade level so this is beyond me. Can someone help translate this? Here's a pic of the menu.
posted by edjusted to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Best answer: "Dream big and have a deep (heart?)" . Couldn't tell for sure about the heart kanji though - even my wife, who is Japanese, couldn't make out his handwriting on that one kanji.
posted by p3t3 at 8:40 PM on June 23, 2007

Response by poster: Wow...where the heck is "kokoro" in there? Thanks for the quick translation!
posted by edjusted at 10:26 PM on June 23, 2007

The one after 大きく, it looks nothing like kokoro to me either. I think my wife was half guessing for something that would make sense.
posted by p3t3 at 10:53 PM on June 23, 2007

Maybe 情? Does that mean anything in Japanese? I only know Chinese.
posted by msittig at 2:36 AM on June 24, 2007

Best answer: It is hard to read (I guess he writes this on a lot of menus so it's gotten streamlined), but I'm pretty sure it's 根. That would make the whole phrase "Big dreams, deep roots". A little Googling reveals supporting evidence in English.
posted by No-sword at 2:55 AM on June 24, 2007

Looks like No-sword probably has it. That character at least resembles the handwritten kanji, but the supporting evidence more or less confirms it.
posted by p3t3 at 3:18 AM on June 24, 2007

No-sword is right. It's 夢は大きく、根は深く (as translated in the link), and it looks like he writes it enough that it's like a signature for him- the 根は深く part, in particular, is especially grasshandy and hard to read.

And I guess the latter half says 森本正治 (Morimoto Masaharu), but it's ridiculously hard to read.
posted by NattyBumppo at 11:12 AM on June 24, 2007

Response by poster: Ok, that does look more like "root" than "heart." Thanks!
posted by edjusted at 11:27 AM on June 24, 2007