July 2010
1 post
丼
丼
ショウ、タン、セイ
どんぶり
a large bowl for serving rice with meat and vegetables, or the meal served in such a bowl
丼 is an interesting character. Generally regarded as a distinctly Japanese character and visible all over the place in any Japanese city, it’s only now being added to the Joyo kanji list.
It turns out this character has a history of use in China as well, and though its recent...
June 2010
2 posts
漢字クイズ - goo辞書 →
俳
俳
ハイ
unorthodox; actor; haiku
The 俳 in 俳句 (haiku) originally meant “unorthodox”. How did it come to be used for Japan’s most famous form of poetry?
Haiku were originally called hokka (発句). They were simply the starting verse of a renga, a collaborative poem written by two or more participants. Over the centuries, a more comical, down-to-earth, less aristocratic form of renga...
May 2010
18 posts
不許葷酒入門 • No Smelly Vegetables or Alcohol Beyond...
Apparently you will sometimes see stone markers (石碑) at temples with the following phrase engraved: 不許葷酒入門 (ふきょくんしゅにゅうもん). Literally, it means “No Onions or Alcohol on Temple Grounds”.
葷 refers to smelly vegetables, particularly of the onion family. There are five traditional ones in particular, the go-kun (五葷) — garlic, onions, leeks, rakkyo, and nobiru, although the list seems to...
日本語で書いている →
A nice Japanese blog with lots of photos of unusual or notable Japanese, particularly on signs.
虫 and 蟲
蟲
むし
ジュウ、チュウ
bug, worm
Everyone knows the character 虫, but what about its rare cousin 蟲? The two have sort of a tangled relationship.
虫 was originally pronounced キ used to represent the mamushi (pitviper), as well as being more broadly applied to reptiles. 蟲 was derived from 虫, pronounced チュウ, and used to represent bugs and insects. However, 虫 also became a common abbreviation or variation of...
大辞林 by Monokakido →
The best Japanese dictionary for the iPod/iPhone just got better, with flawless kanji handwriting input. (You don’t even have to switch input methods during use.)
Gems and Minerals: 瑠璃・玻璃
瑠璃
ルリ
lapis lazuli
These two characters might not be among the Japanese student’s flashcards yet, but as they’re being added to the Joyo kanji list this year, I expect that comprehensive kanji courses and advanced Japanese texts will end up including them if they don’t already.
Photo credit: Orbital Joe
Lapis lazuli — a bright, ultramarine semi-precious gemstone originally...
3 tags
Placename Kanji: 紐育
紐育
ニューヨーク
New York
A lot of countries and even cities that you normally see written with katakana actually have kanji names as well. I was curious to see if New York could be written in kanji, and sure enough, it can be.
Chinese, of course, uses kanji (hanzi) for everything, so the Chinese version could always be borrowed into Japanese in a pinch. In this case, however, New York has a slightly...
Koin 変体仮名 →
A comprehensive chart of hentaigana — alternate hiragana characters.
漢字論原点回帰II →
A Japanese blog on kanji, with particular emphasis on the Chinese nature of kanji.
漢字の読み方Blog →
A Japanese blog on tricky kanji readings.
9 tags
Animal Kanji: 鴫
鴫
しぎ
snipe
This appears to be a made-in-Japan character and is used to refer to the snipe (birds of the family Scolopacidae).
At Hōzōji Temple around the corner from my house, there is a haiku stone left by the great poet Matsuo Bashō. It reads:
刈り跡や早稲かたかたの鴫の声
（かりあとや わせかたがたの しぎのこえ）
Here’s my translation:
Among the stubble
Of newly gathered wase
The snipe are singing
Wase (早稲)...
5 tags
New Jōyō Kanji
I’m not the biggest believer in the usefulness of the Jōyō kanji list. It’s really a minimum baseline for grade school kanji education and little else. It’s useful enough for students of Japanese to study from, but there are many non-Jōyō kanji that any student needs to learn to be literate, and quite a few Jōyō kanji that can be put off until later.
That said, it’s...
50 Japanese town logos with kanji →
