How do I write this in kanji?

[Damius]

Originally Posted by something

I also very very highly recommend rikaichan if you don't have it. You can mouse over any Japanese and it will give possible readings and definitions per character or word in a popup. It's good for zeroing in a bit more specifically, and is also useful for guessing at names. It helps to know a little bit about the basic structure of the language to get the most out of it but I use it almost exclusively, and rarely go to a translation site.

Oh, that sure will be useful. I was looking for something like that. Thanks.

[kijakusai]

Originally Posted by something

You can, but I guess the song lyrics (or whoever entered it into the HxH site) just didn't in this case. Some words (not sure how common it is with that specific one) are often spelled out in kana even though they have kanji equivalents.

It is OK to write yamato kotoba in hiragana.
There are people who tend to write yamato kotoba (Japanese words having their origins in the time before the introduction of Chinese characters) in hiragana or katakana. In fact, to write yamato kotoba excessively in kanji is often regarded as a thing that is done by undereducated people who try to feign to be well-educated (and by gaijin who have a smattering of Japanese and erroneously think sprinkling their Japanese writing with many kanji is a sign of being knowledgeable about Japanese). When Dr Keene Donald re-read Japanese writing which he had written in his younger days, he said those pieces of writings' having too many kanji suggested that he had been a 'newbie' who had tried to be cool.
So it is possible that when you read an article/book written by a Japanese man of letters, you see that yamato kotoba tend to be written in hiragana, rather than in kanji.
Yanagita Kunio criticised people who excessively applied kanji to yamato kotoba.

　最初自分たちでよい加減な宛字をこしらへて置きながら、それに引付けられて元の語の意味をその方へ曲げて 行くとは何といふ拙ないことであらう。ヤッカイといふ語は家と居との組合せで、本來はたゞ同居人といふこと であつた。是を公文に必ず厄介と書くことになつて、次第に此一語の感じを惡くした。兄や伯父たちと仲よく暮 して居る者が、この爲にどれ程肩身を狹くしたことか、考へて見ると宛字も折々は罪を作つて居る。以前是が非 でも漢字ばかりを以て男の文章を書かなければならなかつた時代でも、なほ今少し熟慮してもらひたかつたと思 ふことは多い。ましてこの自由な假名まじり文の世の中になつて、さういふ偏した立場から、文字に制約せられ ない人々を、嘲つたり戒めたりすることは、歷史を知つて居たらよもや出來ることで無からう。

Yanagita humorously called it the '(lower-middlebrows consult) cheap dictionaries (and excessively apply kanji to yamato kotoba and use too many kanji words)' evil.
　

[Orochimaru]

Originally Posted by kijakusai

It is OK to write yamato kotoba in hiragana.
There are people who tend to write yamato kotoba (Japanese words having their origins in the time before the introduction of Chinese characters) in hiragana or katakana. In fact, to write yamato kotoba excessively in kanji is often regarded as a thing that is done by undereducated people who try to feign to be well-educated (and by gaijin who have a smattering of Japanese and erroneously think sprinkling their Japanese writing with many kanji is a sign of being knowledgeable about Japanese).

Do Japanese people tend to know which words predate the introduction of kanji? That's a lot more etymological knowledge than most English speakers have...

[kijakusai]

Originally Posted by Orochimaru

That's a lot more etymological knowledge than most English speakers have...

Er―you mean something like 'When a native user of English sees an English word, can he say whether it is derived from Anglo-Saxon or Norman French/Latin'?

Originally Posted by Orochimaru

Do Japanese people tend to know which words predate the introduction of kanji?

When a native user of Japanese reads a Japanese word and it is not a yamato kotoba, pronunciation-wise the word usually has an 'I'm a descendant of an ancient Chinese dialect' feel.
So usually educated Japanese people can relatively easily detect whether a Japanese word is a yamato kotoba or not.
　

[Orochimaru]

Originally Posted by kijakusai

Er―you mean something like 'When a native user of English sees an English word, can he say whether it is derived from Anglo-Saxon or Norman French/Latin'?

Yeah, that, and also how old it is. I was thinking more recent Japanese words that aren't derived from Chinese wouldn't count as Yamato Kotoba. But of course they would still have their origins in that time...

When a native user of Japanese reads a Japanese word and it is not a yamato kotoba, pronunciation-wise the word usually has an 'I'm a descendant of an ancient Chinese dialect' feel.
So usually educated Japanese people can relatively easily detect whether a Japanese word is a yamato kotoba or not.

Ok. So are all Kunyomi readings Yamato Kotoba? Because it seems to me that kanji is generally used even for words that aren't derived from Chinese...

[kijakusai]

Originally Posted by Orochimaru

Ok. So are all Kunyomi readings Yamato Kotoba? Because it seems to me that kanji is generally used even for words that aren't derived from Chinese...

Yes, kun-yomi are yamato kotoba.

There was Yamato Kotoba X in Japan in the first place.
↓
Kanji Y was imported into Japan,
and Kanji Y represented a similar concept to Yamato Kotoba X.
↓
Ancient Japanese people gave Yamato Kotoba X to Kanji Y,
and they started to use Yamato Kotoba X as a kun-yomi of Kanji Y.