This a kanji is a phono-semantic compound of half 犬(transformed into 犭) and half 師 (that is where the し comes from ).
In Chinese, it may be simplified as 狮, but I do not think that is true in Japanese.
We most often see this kanji used for a 獅子(lion). The left handed 狛犬 at a Shinto shrine is also known as a 獅子.
If you are in 沖縄本島 you will hear their little lion dogs being called シーサー. This is merely 獅子さん which has been shortened over the centuries.
Invariably, in pairs of these critters, one will have the mouth open, and one closed. They are 阿形 and 吽形, the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. Kind of like the Alpha and Omega in the West. Say them together, and you get the mantra “aum”.
Finally, this kanji is used in a descriptive 四字熟語, 獅子身中 a treacherous insider.
The character for middle appears in red on the 麻雀 (mahjong) tile .
In English it is called the red dragon, along with the green dragon and the white dragon. But the use of “dragon” is apparently a western invention, and the Sino-Japanese collective term for these three tiles together is 三元牌.
Next, the modern Japanese form of the character used on the green dragon:
発
This is the radical for the kanji 愛. I think it’s fairly rare for a kanji’s radical to appear in the middle of the kanji. As such, there is no common name for this radical position. It it also sometimes said that the radical for this kanji is actually the bottom part, the すいにょう or なつあし, but that seems to be wrong.
On this website we can find a list of kanji that have a certain radical, and I found only one other kanji with the heart radical in the middle: 𢜤 an alternate for 愛.
This kanji has a fairly simple construction: The semantic component is 辵 / ⻌ (“walk”), denoting movement, and the semantic component is 斤, denoting the sound. Indeed, the jōyō on’yomi of 斤 and 近 are the same, even to this day.
According to Seely-Henshall, the meaning of “near” is an extended meaning of “walk a short distance”.
In the Shuowen Jiezi, this character is written with 辵 fully on the left, and notes an older form of this character, 𣥍. However, the form with the combining form ⻌ was already in use during the Warring States period, as was another form that placed 斤 above 止.
Now, let’s go with one that I messed up on my previous review session:
I only noticed recently that this kanji appears as the top component of 蟹 (crab). Both have the same 音読み of かい, though I don’t think WK teaches that reading for the crab kanji.
Anyway, 解 itself means untie or unravel, as well as having some indirect meanings like explanation, understanding, solve.
This character appears in the name of the 説文解字 (Shuowen Jiezi), an ancient Chinese dictionary that was the first to try to break down characters based on their structure, and introduced 部首 (radicals) as an organizing scheme.
Here’s another kanji with the same left-hand component:
触
How is this for a nice proverb:
触らぬ神に祟りなし
The spirit you do not approach will not curse you.
The 旧字体 form of this 漢字 is 觸.
There are some nice descriptive expressions with this kanji related to touch, such as 触れ回る, to go around spreading rumors.
But there are also a bunch of words that are totally creeping me out 触手, tentacle, 触角, antenna, feeler. I actually really like the look of that second word, how the 角 element is repeated.
Dictionaries list this as old, past. WK gives it as former, which is a little unorthodox but does work well for several compounds.
The 旧字体 form is 舊. That looks like a pretty radical simplification, but it makes a bit more sense if you see it as dropping the top parts entirely, and then changing the bottom 臼 to 旧.
The only joke that I have ever told in Japanese: a man stopped me on 五条通 and remarked at the camera around my neck. The camera was 70 years old. I held it up and said “新しい”
Wiktionary says that the left had side is a hazelnut tree, which is the phonetic component, and the right hand side is the axe that cuts it down, hence starting something new.
The “Key to Kanji” which happens to be the only book at hand right now, describes this as the large needle radical on top of the wood radical, being cut down by the axe radical, which reveals fresh wood, hence indicating newness.
This is a 常用漢字 that is not taught by WK. It means firewood.
According to Seeley/Henshall, this is an extended sense of the original meaning of 新, which literally meant chopping a tree. When 新 was borrowed for its sound value to write a word meaning “new”, it eventually became helpful to add the grass radical 艹 at the top to disambiguate.
(This is similar to what happened with 雲. Originally the character for “cloud” was just 云, but that character was frequently borrowed for a word meaning “speak”, so the cloud character gained 雨 at the top to distinguish it.)
The phonetic part of this kanji meaning silkworm is 天, from which the hiragana て evolved. The semantic part is 虫.
Also there is a 表外字 form, 蠶.
The word silkworm is almost always written in katakana: カイコ.
Jisho does not list a single common word that uses this kanji. I guess the silk industry has nearly died in Japan.
There are very many words that use this kanji that pertain specifically to 蚕 agriculture. But here is one nice metaphorical word:
In Japanese, this has been simplified from 帶. In Chinese is is simplified differently, to 带. Originally, the top of the diagram illustrated hanging ornaments, and the bottom part hanging fabric. Hence an おび, a belt with ornamentation.
Now, this kanji can indicate many belt like things, even electronic bandwidth!
The 音読み of this kanji たい, which it lends to 滞, stagnate.
I started to try to pick apart the transitive and intransitive uses of the verb (jisho lists it as both), but I only got more confused the more I read about it, and I think I’m too tired to make any sense of it right now. I will ask my teacher tomorrow during class, and see if we can come up with an answer! If nobody else hase solved it by then, I’ll do an edit or a new post about it.
An expression I learned from a friend suddenly came to mind: 足が棒になった, so the next kanji is:
This has 却 as phonetic (きゃく) and our old friend 肉月 as semantic, indicating a body part. Together they mean leg.
In theory, 脚 is said to refer to the leg (between the ankle and pelvis), while 足 is said to refer to the foot specifically. However, real usage seems to frequently ignore this distinction, especially with the more common 足.
WK calls this contrary, and makes it from the history and stamp radicals. The traditional form is 卻, with a phonetic part on the left and a semantic part on the right.
It is used for words involving loss, including financial words, and many words involving cooling systems:
却って on the contrary
冷却 cooling, refrigeration
売却 selling off
脱却 ridding oneself
返却 return, repayment
減価償却 depreciation
忘却 lapse of memory
All common words. And a nice 四時:
心頭滅却 clearing the mind of all mundane thoughts
The semantic part of this is 冫, ice, and the phonetic is 冷, orders.
It is used in very many common words pertaining to refrigeration and cold emotions.
Some random words:
冷蔵庫refrigerator
冷たいcold temperature or emotionally
冷える to grow cold
冷房 air conditioning
冷静calmness, composure
冷淡 cold, indifferent, unkind
冷やかす to make fun of, jeer at
冷戦 cold war
冷害 cold weather crop damage
It has been 静か here, the past couple days, hasn’t it? The most surprising thing that every Japanese learner should know about the word, is that it is irregular in its noun form. Where normally you can just add さ to nounify a な-adjective, in this case しずかさ is wrong, and should be しずけさ.
I think not very long after learning this titbit, I heard it in 約束のネバーランド shouted by one of the mamas.
The traditional form is 騷, which has 馬 and phonetic 蚤 (flea). Together they mean boisterous, make noise, noisy.
The 新字体 version drops the extra dots in the flea part.
WK teaches the verb 騒ぐ, to make noise.
This reminds me of an Ace Attorney character, the lively photographer 大沢木ナツミ (Lotta Hart). Her Japanese surname is a pretty straightforward pun on 大騒ぎ.
The 旧字体 form of this kanji is 獨. On the right side of this, we have 蜀(green caterpillar), which is a variant form of 一. On the left side we have an animal, 犭. An animal alone is alone, hence this kanji means alone. Good grief.
I like how we can put a り after this kanji and get 独り, usually written as 一人.
Here are a few 四字熟語 to brighten your day:
独断専行 acting arbitrarily on one’s own authority
毒刃貴族 unmarried person living affluently
独立独行 self reliance
独り相撲fighting at windmills
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