Say Something About The Kanji Above You

looks kinda like a person walking, idk. simplicity can be bliss :cherry_blossom:

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Looks more than kinda like a pop-top can. Cola-Cola thought so too, so they put it in a 白熊(しろくま)'s hand for some very famous テレビ commercials.

Another level 1:

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There are three Jōyō kanji that list an 音読み of にゅう:

  • 入 (enter)
  • 乳 (milk)
  • 柔 (gentle; more commonly じゅう)

Three is pretty low, but there are other readings that are only used by one or two listed kanji.

For example:

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I found 雜 and 襍, which are just 人名用 earlier variants. Now I know what is happening when I hear a ざつ prefix to a word:
雑音(ざつおん) noise
雑談(ざつだん) chatter
雑用(ざつよう) tasks
But look out for the 連濁(れんだく)
雑誌(ざっし) magazine
雑貨(ざっか) stuff
雑種(ざっしゅ) hybrid
雑踏(ざっとう) crowd
And my very favorite:

雑草(ざっそう) Weeds!

Which reminds me of this:

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Get off my lawn! And while you’re at it, keep your hands off my 映像研えいぞうけん, which is where I remember seeing this kanji in the name of 芝浜高校しばはまこうこう (Shibahama High School):

If you haven’t watched Eizouken, be sure to check it out if you get a chance!

I also found it fun to look up the kanji for the main characters’ names:

  • 浅草あさくさみどり
  • 金森かなもりさやか
  • 水崎みずさきツバメ

For the next kanji, let’s not get too fancy:

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Gold’s not fancy? I’d like to know what world you’re living in :wink:

釒(かねへん) can be found to the left side of many kanji that mean metals, or things made with metals. Very consistent!

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That one is a bit… へん。But then again, many things in Japan(ese) are!
Like a person standing next to a library (a.k.a. “a door over a bookcase”) would be, in this day and age. Always standing on the left though, for some reason. :thinking: Lefties… strange indeed.

Let’s take a closer look at

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私が変だと言うつもりなの?かかってこいよ!

This kanji reminds me of the t-shirt I bought in a Lefthanded store once: ‘I may be lefthanded, but I’m always right’. Truer words were never written.

Related to writing:

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I like that the bottom of this kanji actually shows a hand holding a writing brush.

The top part is bamboo 竹, which apparently represents the bamboo handle of the brush.

The brush part shows up as an element in other kanji, such as:

  • 書 (write)
  • 建 (construction)
  • 律 (law)
  • 津 (haven)

筆 is part of the Japanese word for pencil, 鉛筆えんぴつ.

So the next kanji is:

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Pencil, a.k.a. the lead brush. No, not lead brush… that’s a 同形異音語、or 同綴異音異義語。
The right hand side kind of looks like a sharpened pencil. The left is of course metal, but we’ve already mentioned metal, so next up is

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Did you know that ぬ is the only verb in modern Japanese that ends in ぬ? There are plenty of verbs that end with う・く・ぐ・す・つ・ぶ・む・る, but only one ぬ.

WK calls the 歹 part on the left “yakuza”, but what it more properly represents is a bone with all of the meat removed. Makes sense that it would appear in a kanji for death!

That gives me some inspiration for the next kanji:

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Fun fact: characters that contain the ‘double square’ we see on top of 骨 (like 過 and 鍋) are written differently in Chinese and Japanese : in Japanese, the inner square is on the right (meaning the larger box contains a shape that looks like a little ‘r’), whereas in Chinese, it’s on the left (so you see a little ‘L’ rotated 180 degrees). 月 is a common symbol for meat or flesh, even if it also represents the moon. According to Kanjipedia, 冎 represents the shape of a bone. Interesting, no? 漢字は素晴らしいね!

And so, how about…

Bonus if anyone’s interested: what’s the kanji in my profile picture? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: I wrote it in more of a Chinese style, but handwriting input should still bring it up. Note: it’s not on Kanjipedia, but some other sites have it.

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Is it 鶼, a combination of 兼 and 鳥?

(This is a bonus reply, so the next kanji is still 晴.)

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Yup, you got it! Do you know what it means? There’s another more common Japanese word that means the same thing. Hint: it’s related to legends and mythology

Next kanji:

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Thus starts one of my favorite 四字熟語(よじじゅくご)!
晴耕雨読(せいこううどく) I work out in the fields when it is sunny, and study kanji indoors when it rains.
I look up into the skies, which are clearing up, and exclaim “は”, when what do I see?
鶼 a double headed mythical bird. (But I am sure that I am missing some important distinction, because it doesn’t align closely with any of the Japanese or Chinese mythical birds that I can find information on. )

We may need to request an extra hint!

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I don’t want to steal all the ‘say something about this kanji’ stuff, but it’s just funny that in Chinese, 請 works pretty well as ‘please’, which fits this context perfectly. :stuck_out_tongue: However, we’re on a forum about Japanese, so I’ll leave someone else to say something interesting about the kanji, because I have nothing else in mind right now.

You’re right, actually! However, well… hm… I’m not sure how to point you towards the answer without basically giving you the answer. OK, what if I told you that the reason the bird is double-headed is that it’s actually two birds, and you can split the ‘double bird’ down the middle?

If you want some sources where the other word for 鶼 appears…

  • Classical: 長恨歌, a Chinese poem about the tragic love of an emperor and a concubine. It’s given Japanese a proverb that you can find on Goo辞書, and which has an almost identical equivalent in Chinese. (The only thing that changes is word order, because of grammar.)
  • Modern: the bird is used as a symbol throughout the anime Darling in the FranXX (DitF), and it’s introduced in episode 1, using (I believe) both the Chinese and Japanese names.

If you’re completely stuck, you can look the kanji up in Jitenon, which contains a short definition for it. The answer is there too.

(If you’re wondering how I discovered this kanji… through DitF. I’d probably heard the Chinese proverb once or twice, but I didn’t know what it meant before watching that anime.)

EDIT: Next kanji is still

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請 It’s queer to me that “moon” and “life” are the ones being requested/demanded of, in this kanji. It makes me imagine some crazy farmer yelling at the sky at 3am, demanding the moon people stop stealing his cows in the middle of the night while a cow just casually struts off through the hole in the fence behind him.

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In modern Japanese, the character 断 is primarily associated with refusal and decision-making.
However, in Chinese, its literal translation is something like “cut” or “snap off”, and its association with decision-making comes from interpreting the word figuratively.

断 originated as an ideogrammic compound, in which both components point to cutting.
The right-hand component will be familiar to many as 斤, “axe”.
The left-hand component was originally 𢇍, which depicts strands of silk being cut. Over time, however, the character 𢇍 was replaced by 絕, and the character 斷 was simplified to 断.

Next character: 永

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Eternity, or at least a long time. Make sure you don’t confuse this one with 水, 氷, or 泳!

The 訓読み reading is なが, which is the same underlying word as なが. The 永 version tends to indicate a very long period of time. This reading also appears in the names of people and places, so be aware of it!

Next up:

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This kanji has been around since at least 938 when the first Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters, the ()妙類受賞(みょうるいじゅしょう) was compiled.

Curiously, when we use the verb こおる, we write it with a different kanji, (こお)る.

My paper dictionary lists only one other character with こおり as the 訓読(くんよ)み.

(こおり)

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