Tenji

Tenji is a Japanese term most widely used to refer to the system of tactile writing for the blind in Japan, written in Japanese as 点字 and commonly transliterated as tenji. The term literally means "dot characters," reflecting the raised-dot cells used to encode letters, numerals, punctuation, and other symbol sets in a form readable by touch.

Japanese tenji is closely related to the international Braille family; however, it uses its own conventions for kana, punctuation, and numerals. In addition to standard tenji, a related method called kantenji extends the system to represent kanji through multi-cell patterns, enabling more compact encoding of Chinese-origin characters within Braille-based text.

Beyond its primary meaning, Tenji may also appear as a transliteration of personal names or place names in Japanese. In such cases, the meaning depends on the kanji chosen for the name and is not tied to the Braille sense of the word.

Because the term can refer to different concepts depending on kanji, context usually clarifies its intended sense. In encyclopedic usage, Tenji most often denotes the Braille system, while proper names require additional qualifiers to distinguish them. See also Braille, Japanese language, and kantenji for related topics.