To Give

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10,000

by Nao

man

1 man or ichi man is the number 10,000.  So a million is 100 man or hyaku man (100 x 10,000 = 1,000,000).

It also means a myriad.

The word man ga ichi or man ichi literally tells one out of 10,000 meaning by any chance. A possibility of man ga ichi or man ichi is really rare.

This character consists of three strokes.

1. Draw the horizontal line on top from left to right.
2. Draw the hook-shaped stroke. Start it from below center of the first line. Go a bit, change direction, draw a slightly bent line, pause, and lift the brush while making a neat little hane (a thorn-like stroke at the bottom).
3. Start the last stroke from the center of the first line. When you start, put the tip of the brush there.  Use the whole brush only at the beginning. The tip goes along the edge of the sword-like stroke. The edge is the left side of it. This edge should look sharper than the other side.

Length

by Nao

jō, take

Let me start telling you about ichijō (one jō). It is a unit of length equal to about 3.03 meters, but the unit is obsolete.

This character, jō, is part of the name of an island, Hachijojima, in Tokyo. It’s a tourist resort in the Pacific. Fine silk fabrics called hachijō is a local product.

When attached to other characters, it has other meanings. In Japanese, we sometimes ask “daijōbu?” and reply “daijōbu”. They mean, “Are you ok?” and “I’m ok” respectively. The word daijōbu consists of three parts, dai, jō, and bu.  Jō in the middle is this character. Dai means greatly.  Jōbu is healthy.

Here is how to draw this character:

1. Draw the horizontal stroke from left to right. It can go up a bit.
2. Draw the longer curve from top to lower left and end it with harai (a sweeping stroke).
3. Gently start the last stroke from below where you start the first stroke. When you almost end it, pause and change the direction of the brush, and then make a triangle harai.  (The second and third strokes cross in the form of X.)

Talent

by Nao

sai

If you have sai for something, you have a talent for it.

When you say your age, you use sai, too. If you are 3 years old, you say san (3) sai.

When it is combined with another character, it means talent most of the time. For example, tensai (genius), saino (talent) and bunsai (literary talent).

Here is how to draw this character:

1. Draw the horizontal line from left to right.
2. Draw the vertical line from top to bottom. Don’t forget the upward turn at the bottom. We call this technique hane.
3. Draw the final stroke and end it with a sweeping motion. We call this technique harai (a sweeping stroke).

Dry

by Nao

kan, ho(-su), hi(-ru)

This character means dry. Both ho-su and hi-ru have the same verbal meanings, to dry, whether they are transitive or intransitive (su and ru are hiragana syllabaries, which are like alphabets). The tide receding from the beach is expressed by hi-ru or kancho of which the kan is this character and cho is a tide.

Ho-su and ho-sareru have unfavorable meanings: to ostracize and to be ostracized, respectably.

The 10 celestial stems are jikkan. Of this, kan is today’s character and jik is 10.

The shorter horizontal stroke is drawn, first. The longer one is the second. The vertical stroke from top to bottom is the last.

Down, Under or Lower

Down, Under or Lower

shita, moto, sa-geru, sa-garu, kuda-ru, kuda-su, kuda-saru, o-riru, o-rosu, ka, ge, shimo

The most basic meaning of the word, shita, is the bottom or the foot.

When read ka, this character is part of karyu (the lower classes).  Marketing analyst, Atsushi Miura, made the word, karyu, well known because of his best-seller, karyu shakai (lower class society).  Most Japanese people used to regard themselves as the middle classes.  However, after the bubble burst of the 1990s, increasing number of Japanese people identify themselves as the lower classes.

Another word including this character is Shimoda, a tourist spot in Izu, Shizuoka.  Shimoda is the historic port where Commodore Perry landed when Japan was taking a national seclusion policy in the Edo Period (1603-1867).

Draw the horizontal line and then the vertical line. Put the dot-like stroke in the end.

Two

by Nao

ni, futa, futa(-tsu), ji

If you have already seen ichi (one) and san (three), you might be able to guess what it means. It means two or second.

Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary includes the headword, nisei. This ni is second and sei is generation. So, nisei is a second generation whose parents are Japanese immigrants called issei (first generation).

The Japanese popular candy maker, Fujiya. Ji in Fujiya is this character, meaning two. Ya means a shop. We use fu to put negative meaning to the subsequent character. In this case, there is nothing like this shop or it is second to none.

The second stroke is longer than the first one.

Three

by Nao

san

This means a number, again. It is three.

When we count 1, 2, 3 … , we say ichi, ni, san ….

When we count things more slowly, we sometimes say, “hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu …” All the tsu is one of the hiragana syllabaries, which are like alphabets. So if you add tsu after this character, it can be pronounced mittsu. Technically speaking, mit is another reading of this character.

As you can see, it is a 3-stroke character. Each stroke should be like ichi. Draw the top stroke first, then the middle one, and the bottom one. The longest stroke is the bottom one. The middle one is the shortest.

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Seven

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T

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