text: japanese please- i need some kanji that represents the name mark.? because there's no way to represent a nobasu in kanji, the three syllables of ma, a and ku will be fine.    japanese pros please give me 2 or 3 kanji representing these sounds as i'm having trouble coming up with a good combo.    i thought  ma- pure and aku-evil was good, but my co-workers in japan disagree... you obviously know all about katakana, so i won't waste my time..!  maa could be 麻 - flax; linen; hemp; (it's not normally pronounced 'maa', but it's the first kanji of mahjongg...!) 間合い (まあい) = interval ... if you remove the い you could get away with using it...?!?  ma could be 魔 demon; devil; evil spirit evil influence;  (the one you already know!) 間 space; room; time; pause; 真  just; right; due (east); pure; genuine; true  aku could be 開 to open; to become open; to become empty 悪 evil; wickedness; (i assume this is the one you've considered!!) 灰汁 (あく) lye; harsh taste 灰 puckery juice;   i couldn't find any 'a's, but you could possibly use 嗚呼 (ああ) which is an exclamation - ah! oh! alas! (they don't seem to mean anything alone though.)  ku could be 九 nine 苦 pain; anguish; suffering; distress   傴 bend over  区 ward; district; section;  句 phrase; clause; sentence; passage; paragraph; expression; line; verse; stanza; 17-syllable poem;    there's another, strange looking aku kanji that won't paste!! if you go to http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1c and search for 'bird's chirping sound (gisei-go)' you should see it! it's 'akuaku', which is two identical kanji, and it's - as you can tell - the chirping sound of a bird!  you must already know that when japanese invent names they often use obscure kanji, or obscure pronunciations! maybe if you ask mature women, with kids, for ideas you might get a more sensible answer than from your co-workers!!  but i think it's considered a bit 'strange' for a foreigner in japan to use kanji for their first name pronunciation ... katakana was invented for people like us! ; ) (i've heard of people doing this before, and they all give it up after a few years because they end up feeling a bit silly...!)