I've seen 達人and 名人used to indicate master or expert. What's the difference?

Question

I'm not familiar with either word, but just looking at the characters, 達人 would seem to indicate 'accomplished' (ie an accomplished pianist). While 名人 seems more like 'renowned'. Is that a valid assessment?

Answer 1

Consider the following:

達 as a kanji has the meaning "accomplish", "(to) reach"

名 as a kanji has the meaning "name" or "reputation"

Kanji compounds:

達成 : "achievement"

名高い : "famous, celebrated"

威名 : "fame, prestige"

And in Chinese, 名人(míng rén) has no connotations of skill as far as I know, it simply means "famous person". 達人(dá rén) however means "expert" and does not imply fame.

I would say your assessment is a reasonable one.

Answer 2

Both 達人 and 名人 are usually associated with skills in Japanese.

達人 means a person who has mastered everything about something by long-time experience.

名人 usually means a person who has excellent skills. Daijisen also lists another meaning “評判の高い人” (person who is spoken well of), but I think that the usage without connotation with high skills is rare. Daijirin does not state the latter meaning.