\markboth{}{} and CJK

Question

I'm writing a Japanese dictionary using the CJKutf8 package in LaTeX. I wrote a few macros to make entries and everything works fine except setting headers with fancyhdr.

Using a macro:

\newcommand{\J}[1]{\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{song}#1\end{CJK}}

I type Japanese in Unicode, but in

\markboth{\J{#1}}{\J{#1}}

it doesn't compile and strange errors occur.

This is a working example:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{book}
\usepackage[T1,OT4]{fontenc}
\usepackage{CJKutf8}
\usepackage{hanging}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{fix2col}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\textbf{\rightmark\ -- \leftmark}}
\fancyhead[LO,RE]{\textsf{\textbf{\thepage}}}
\newcommand{\J}[1]{\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{song}#1\end{CJK}}
\newcommand{\E}[4]{\hangpara{3em}{1}\textbf{\J{#2・}}\J{#1}\ #3\ \textit{#4}\J{\markboth{#2}{#2}\cleardoublepage\par}}
\begin{document}
\E{愛}{あい}{miłość}{cn}
\E{青い}{あおい}{niebieski; \emph{rz.} zielony}{ia}
\E{青信号}{あおしんごう}{zielone światło na sygnalizatorze}{mn}
\end{document}

Of course I don't want to make every entry on a separate page so when I remove \cleardoublepage it it does not compile.

How can I make a header with Japanese words in it?

Answer 1

Using your code, you may see these error:

name = cyberb53, rootname = cyberb, pointsize = 53
mktexmf: empty or non-existent rootfile!

...

In fact, the TeX file is fine, but you don't have proper fonts installed for CJK bundle.

The simplest solution is to change

\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{song}

to

\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{min}

And note that song CJKfamily is actually for Chinese rather than Japanese.

There are also many other solutions and I won't explain much. See also How to write Japanese with LaTeX?