Long

by Nao

ta-keru, naga-i, naga-sa, chō, chō-zuru

The adjective nagai means long. The noun nagasa means length. Today’s character and the character we uploaded the other day mean long and read nagai. The former looks more common for both meanings; the latter is not used for the length of something.

Only today’s character reads chō-zuru or chō. Chō-zuru is a verb meaning “to excel.” Chō means a leader, combined with other characters. For example, the titles of leaders often have this character. A president is shachō, of which the sha means a company. The director of a department is buchō, of which the bu means a department. A section chief is kachō, of which the ka means section. A subsection chief is kakarichō, of which the kakari means a subsection. These titles form the Japanese corporate hierarchy. Other organizations also have leaders. A store manager is tenchō, of which the ten means a store. A principal is kōchō, of which the kō means a school. A mayor is shichō, of which the shi means a city.

Incidentally, the names of Nagano prefecture and Nagasaki prefecture begin with this character.

1. Draw the vertical stroke from the top to the middle of the character.
2. Draw the horizontal stroke on the top.
3. Draw the horizontal stroke below it.
4. Draw the horizontal stroke below it.
5. Draw the longest horizontal line.
6. Draw the vertical line below the first stroke.
7. Draw the stroke heading toward the dot below the horizontal line.
8. Draw the dot sweeping toward the previous stroke.
9. Draw the sweeping stroke that goes between the previous two strokes.

The sixth and seventh strokes are one stroke when you write this character with a pen.

The Rabbit

by Nao

u (wu)

This character means the Rabbit, one of the animals of the oriental zodiac. We don’t use this character to mean an ordinary rabbit. The twelve animals of the oriental zodiac are used for years, days, hours, and directions. The year 2010 is the year of the Tiger. The year 2011 is the year of the Rabbit. The hour of the Rabbit is from 5 to 7 am, but it is not practical any more. Although some calendars show the days of the Rabbit, I think people don’t care about them. The direction of the Rabbit is east, but it’s obsolete.

1. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top.
2. From where you end the previous stroke, draw the vertical stroke.
3. Draw the stroke sweeping up.
4. Draw the sweeping stroke from below the first stroke.
5. Draw the hook on the right. Don’t forget the upward turn.
6. Draw the vertical line.

This is a five-stroke character because the second and third strokes are supposed to be connected when written with a pen.

Bamboo

by Nao

take, chiku

A bamboo and bamboos are “take.” Splitting a bamboo is “take wo waru.” If somebody is straightforward or frank, you can describe the person as “take wo watta yō,” whose literal meaning is “like splitting a bamboo.”

Today, I’ll introduce a palindrome and a tongue twister, both of which are well-known among the Japanese but don’t make sense.

Palindrome

Takeyabu yaketa.

It means that a bamboo grove has been burnt. It’s a palindrome because we pronounce each syllable separately.

Ta ke ya bu ya ke ta.

Try reading each syllable from the right to the left.

Tongue Twister

Kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa nowa take tatekaketakatta kara take tatekaketa.

Don’t worry. I can’t pronounce it properly. Let’s disentangle it.

kono = this
takegaki = a bamboo fence
ni = at
tatekaketa = placed something against
nowa = that is to say
tatekaketakatta = wanted to rest something somewhere
kara = because

In sum, it means that I rested a bamboo against this bamboo fence; that is to say, I rested a bamboo there because I wanted to rest a bamboo.

Draw the left-hand side of the character first.

1. Draw the sweeping stroke.
2. Draw the horizontal stroke.
3. Draw the vertical stroke.
4. Begin to draw the right-hand side of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke.
5. Draw the horizontal stroke.
6. Draw the vertical stroke with an upward turn.

River

by Nao

kawa, sen

Kawa is a river. The upper part of a river is kawakami, and the lower part, kawashimo.

The names of rivers end with this character. Its sound becomes gawa that is the voiced sound of kawa. For example, the longest river in Japan is Shinanogawa (the Shinano River), which is also known as Chikumagawa (the Chikuma River). It runs from Nagano prefecture to Niigata prefecture. Tonegawa (the Tone River) in the Kanto area has the largest drainage basin in Japan.

If you are familiar with haiku, you might have heard about senryū. Although haiku needs kigo, a seasonal expression, you don’t have to include kigo in senryū. While haiku is lyrical, senryū is humorous or ironical. It was named after Senryū Karai who was a judge of this style of verses. He lived in the eighteenth century.

Draw the strokes from the left to the right. The stroke on the left-hand side is sweeping. The middle one is the shortest.

Deep

by Nao

fuka-i, fuka-maru, fuka-meru, shin

The adjective fukai means deep. The noun fukasa means depth. The noun fukami means a deep place. The endings of these words, i.e. “i,” “sa,” and “mi,” are all written in hiragana.

We can measure depth. For example, if you have been to a Japanese swimming pool, you might have noticed a sign showing the depth of water. It says, “suishin.”

Now, let’s think about immeasurable things. Fukamidori is deep green. Fukade means a severe wound. Fuka-maru and fuka-meru mean to deepen. The former is intransitive; the latter is transitive. Deepening things are chishiki (knowledge), rikai (understanding), aki (autumn), ai (love), kankei (relationship), mizo (gulf or schism), and so on. You can use these words as the subject of fuka-maru in such a sentence as, “aki ga fukamaru,” meaning, “Autumn deepens.” Although you cannot deepen autumn, you can deepen some of the deepening things. For example, you can say, nihongono chishiki wo fukameru (to deepen one’s knowledge about Japanese).

1. Draw the dot in the upper-left corner.
2. Draw the dot below it.
3. Draw the upward stroke in the lower-left corner. This stroke is heading toward the next stroke.
4. Draw the dot from the top center.
5. Draw the hook. After changing the direction of the brush, draw a sweeping dot.
6. Draw the sweeping dot under the roof you previously made.
7. Draw the L-shaped stroke.
8. Draw the horizontal line.
9. Draw the vertical line crossing the horizontal stroke.
10. Draw the sweeping stroke from the previous strokes intersect. Let it sweep toward the lower left and make it thinner gradually.
11. Draw the sweeping stroke heading toward the lower right corner of the character. Make it broader at the end.

Willow

by Nao

yanagi, ryū

A tree called yanagi is a willow. A pussy willow is nekoyanagi. Neko means a cat. The buds of nekoyanagi are furry like a cat.

Some names include this character. Yanagase in Gifu and Yanagawa in Fukuoka are examples. The former is a shopping district; the latter is famous for a boating trip down the river. This character is used for surnames, too.

Draw the left-hand side of the character first.

1. Draw the horizontal stroke from the left.
2. Draw the vertical line from the top to the bottom.
3. Draw the sweeping stroke from the previous strokes intersect.
4. Draw the dot where the previous stroke begins.
5. Begin to draw the right-hand side of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top.
6. From where you end the previous stroke, draw the vertical stroke.
7. Draw the stroke sweeping up.
8. Draw the sweeping stroke from below the fifth stroke.
9. Draw the hook on the right. Don’t forget the upward turn.
10. Draw the vertical line.

The sixth and the seventh strokes are supposed to joint together when you draw it with a pen.

Stroke

by Nao

kaku, kaku-suru, ga

The main meaning of this character is “image.” I chose a minor meaning. As you can see, we use the word “stroke” every day. The number of strokes is important when you look up a kanji dictionary.

In the tag section of the Japanese blog, we frequently use this character, kaku, to mean strokes. When we count strokes, use the unit “kaku” like ikkaku (one stroke), nikaku (two strokes), sankaku (three strokes), etc.

For those who study Japanese, I should stress that the main meaning of this character is “image.” The related words are “kaiga,” “yōga,” and “ni honga.” They mean paintings, Western style paintings, and Japanese style paintings, respectively. Yōga and nihonga only distinguish painting materials. The former means oil painting. In nihonga, painters use special ink or pigment called iwaenogu.

Kaku-su or kaku-suru is a relatively difficult verb. “To draw a line” is “issen wo kakusu.” Issen means “a line” and it is an object of the verb. In this sense, it might be useful to imagine a line drawn in front of something. The particle wo indicates that the preceding word is an object of the verb. So in this idiom, the verb kaku-su means, “to draw.” In a slightly different expression, you can put an object that itself is distinguished. “To characterize” might be more appropriate meaning in this case. You can put an object before the particle wo, but this time the object is something characterized by the subject. If you say, “the subject wa shinjidai wo kakusu,” it means that the subject characterizes the new era.

Another meaning of kaku-su is to plan. A related compound is keikaku (a plan).

1. Draw the horizontal line.
2. Draw the left side of the rectangle.
3. Draw the upper and right side of the rectangle.
4. Draw the vertical line in the middle.
5. Draw the horizontal stroke in the rectangle.
6. Draw the lower side of the rectangle.
7. Draw the hook consisting of vertical line on the left and the horizontal line at the bottom.
8. Draw the vertical line on the right.

Cozy

by Nao

kokoroyo-i, kai

The titles of our posts are the meanings of characters. As for the title of this entry, the first word I conceived was “comfortable.” On second thought, I chose “cozy.” We have the word “kaitekina,“ which sounds more appropriate for “comfortable.” By the way, teki means appropriate and looks intricate. Like cozy, kokoroyoi looks lighter, shorter, and simpler. All you have to do is add “i” in hiragana.

Adding fu before this, you can express discomfort, That is, fukai.

Let’s see other compounds. Kairaku is pleasure or enjoyment. It is often pursued. If kairaku becomes your principle adding shugi (-ism) after this, it means Epicureanism. Kaisei means fine weather or pleasantly fine. Meikai means lucid. This can be applied for your answers and statements.

Draw the left-hand side of the character, first.

1. Draw the small dot on the left.
2. Draw the other dot.
3. Draw the vertical line between the two dots.
4. Begin to draw the right-hand side of the character. Draw the hook.
5. Draw the horizontal stroke from the left to the right.
6. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top to the lower-left.
7. Draw the sweeping stroke from where the last two strokes intersect to the lower right. Spread the brush at the end to make it broader.

East

by Nao

higashi, tō

Higashi means east. When this is combined with other characters, we usually read it tō. Tōzai means East and West.

Tōkyō is the capital of Japan. This is the first letter of Tōkyō. Until the end of the Edo period (1868), Kyōto was kyō, which means the capital of a country or the place where the Imperial Court is. Since the Court was moved to the east of the country, Tokyo has been known as east kyō.

Kanto, Tōhoku, Tōkai are districts or groups of some prefectures. Kantō means the East of the barrier station, Hakone, and the district includes Tōkyō. Tōhoku means the northeast as a direction and the northeast of Japan. Tōkai is the central region of Japan and includes Aichi.

In a world map in Japanese, East Asia appears as Higashi Ajia. Southeast Asia is Tōnan Ajia. Nan means south. Ajia is written in katakana.

1. Draw the horizontal line.
2. Draw the left side of the rectangle.
3. Draw the upper and right side of the rectangle.
4. Draw the horizontal stroke in the rectangle.
5. Draw the lower side of the rectangle.
6. Draw the vertical line.
7. Draw the sweeping stroke from the center to the lower left corner of the character.
8. Draw the sweeping stroke from the center to the lower right making the end broader.

Fat or Thick

by Nao

futo-i, futo, buto, ta, tai

The adjective futo-i means fat or thick. If you have a big arm, we call it “futoi ude.”  Ude means arm. A fat person is described as futotteiru. Futoru means “to gain weight.” The noun futosa means thickness.

The rest of the readings are used in compounds. For example, futoji is a bold character or a bold face. Honebuto is big-boned. Hone means bone. Tachi is a long sword.

1. Draw the horizontal line from the left to the right.
2. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top to the lower left corner of the character. Make it narrower gradually.
3. Draw the sweeping stroke from where the previous strokes intersect to the lower right corner. Make it broader in the end.
4. Draw the dot between the two sweeping strokes.