Rough

by Nao

ara-i, ara, so

Ara-i is an adjective meaning rough, and coarse. With this reading and meaning, there are some compounds. Arajio is unrefined salt. Arabiki is used to describe coarsely ground food, such as coffee, pepper, meat, and so on.

The single character, ara, means a fault, and a flaw. This kind of fault is often deliberately discovered in writings and sayings and criticized. There, therefore, are some expressions like the noun, arasagashi, meaning nit-picking, and the verb, ara wo sagasu, meaning to looking for faults. The verb, sagasu, means to look for. The noun, sagashi, is derived from the verb.

Another reading is so. Coarse things are described as somatsu. For example, somatsu na tabemono means coarse fare or a simple diet. Simply put, it is soshoku.

The left-hand side of this character looks similar to kome (rice). When some characters are used as radicals, they are smaller than the original. They are often tilted a little for the sake of balance.

1. Start drawing the left-hand side. Draw the dot on the upper left.
2. Draw the dot from the top center.
3. Draw the horizontal line.
4. Draw the vertical line.
5. Draw the sweeping stroke from the center of the cross to the lower left. Make it thinner at the end.
6. Draw the dot from the center of the cross to the lower right. This stroke is different from the last stroke of kome.
7. Start drawing the right-hand side. Draw the vertical stroke at the center.
8. Draw the right-angled hook. The horizontal part is thinner than the vertical part.
9. Draw the upper horizontal stroke inside the rectangle.
10. Draw the horizontal stroke below it.
11. Draw the longest horizontal stroke at the bottom.