Meat

Meat

niku

This character also means “flesh.” To distinguish this from mi, meaning flesh, I excluded “flesh” from the title. Hearing niku or more polite oniku, we imagine that it is soft meat to eat. You might wonder what the difference between the two characters: niku and mi. The former is today’s character, which implies animal’s meat carnivores eat or carnality. The latter is your physical part and it can be contrasted to mind and spirit or distinguished from skin and bones.

Nikutai means a body. Physical beauty is nikutaibi. Nikushoku is carnivore.

Irony or sarcasm is hiniku.

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1. Draw the vertical stroke to the left.
2. Draw the hook from where you start the previous stroke.
3. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top center.
4. Draw the diagonal stroke touching the previous stroke.
5. Draw the sweeping stroke from the center.
6. Draw the diagonal stroke touching the previous stroke.

Over or Upper (Sosho)

Over or Upper (Sosho)

ue, uwa, kami, a-geru, a-garu, nobo-ru, nobo-seru, nobo-su, jō

Yesterday’s post was the same character but it was in a kaisho style. Today’s work is written in a sō sho style, which more cursive than kaisho styles.

"Over (kaisho)" by Nao

Over or Upper (Gyosho)

You can find basic information about this character here and this character in a gyōsho style is here.

Over or Upper (Gyosho)

Over or Upper (Gyosho)

ue, uwa, kami, a-geru, a-garu, nobo-ru, nobo-seru, nobo-su, jō

You can find basic information about this character here. This character is written in gyōsho. Gyō sho is a cursive style of writing.

"Over (kaisho)" by Nao

<<< This is the kaisho style.

Compared to the kaisho style, the starting point and the end of each stroke don’t look sharp but strokes should not look weak.

Referring to the kaisho style, find which part should look clearer and which lines are just connectors.

The stroke order is different from the kaisho style.

A Folding Fan

A Folding Fan

ougi, sen

This is a fan you can wave. Sensu and ōgi mean a folding fan.

If you want to be fanned automatically to cool yourself, get senpūki. The ki of senpūki means a machine.

A round and flat fan is called uchiwa, which consists of dan and today’s character.

When we look up the dictionary for the verb “to wave (a fan),” we find “ao-gu.” In this, you can use today’s character for “ao” but I think many Japanese people believe that you don’t have to remember how to write this word in kanji. So I didn’t include this in the list of its readings.

By the way, talking about kanji characters the Japanese believe that it’s not necessary to remember, I don’t mean we don’t use it. Thanks to the sophisticated technology of kana-kanji conversion, we are tempted to use kanji characters even if we can’t write them off the top of our head. If I type “aogu” in hiragana and type the space or “conversion” key, the conversion system automatically shows me several selections for the word and the meaning of each choice. All I have to do is choose one of them. In this way, we learn some words in kanji everyday. But we learn to choose and will never learn how to write them correctly.

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1. Draw the horizontal stroke on the top.
2. Draw the hook below the first stroke.
3. Draw the horizontal stroke below the hook.
4. Draw the sweeping stroke from where you start the second stroke.
5. Draw the hook with the upward turn.
6. Draw the dot under the horizontal part of the previous stroke. Draw it from the upper left.
7. Draw the sweeping stroke from the lower left.
8. – 10.  Repeat step 5 to 7 for the next three strokes.

Wave

Wave

nami, ha

Summer is waning. The sound of the waves (namioto) carries the summer away.

Waves are nami. It’s a noun.

This character is included in some compounds.

Namikaze is the waves and winds you had better not cause. It is trouble.

Shūha is a wave cycle and shūhasū is a frequency.

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1. Draw the dot in the upper-left corner of the character.
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 sweeping stroke in the middle.
5. Draw the hook consisting of a horizontal stroke and a short sweeping stroke.
6. Draw the vertical stroke from the top.
7. Draw the hook consisting of a horizontal stroke and a longer sweeping stroke.
8. Draw the sweeping stroke, which crosses the previous sweeping stroke.

Wide

"Wide" by Nao

hiro-i, hiro-sa, hiro-meru, hiro-maru, hiro-geru, hiro-garu, kō

You can derive a wide spread of vocabulary from this character. According to appearances and usage, the words can be grouped into seven, at least.

A single kanji with okurigana

• Adjective -> hiroi (wide)
• Adverb -> hiroku (widely)
• Verb -> hiromeru (to spread something), hiromaru (something like news or rumors spreads), hirogeru (to spread something), hirogaru (something like fire spreads)
• Noun -> hirosa (area, the amount of flat space), hirogari (a wide spread)

Compounds consisting of more than two kanji characters

• Noun -> kōkoku (an advertisement), “kōkoku nushi” (a sponsor)
• Verb -> “kōkoku suru” (to advertise)
• Adjective verb -> “kōdai na” (vast, immense)
• Adverb -> “kōdai ni” (vastly, immensely), “hirobiro to” (spacious)

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1. Draw the dot on the top.
2. Draw the horizontal stroke.
3. Draw the sweeping stroke to the left.
4. Draw the rotated chevron.
5. Draw the dot on the end of the previous stroke.

Ice

"Ice" by Nao

hi, kōri, hyō

One of the most tempting refreshments I crave to take in summer is a bowl of shaved ice with syrup. It is called kakigōri. Gōri is a voiced sound of kōri meaning ice. Where can you eat it? Find this sign.

>>>> (Thanks to maaco)

In summer areas, it’s refreshing to talk about ice these days. For those who are spending the winter now, these words may sound too cold.

An iceberg is hyōzan. The tip of an iceberg is “hyōzan no ik kaku.”

A glacier is hyōga. The Ice Age is “hyōga ji dai.”

The freezing point is hyōten. Subzero temperatures are hyōten ka.

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1. Draw the vertical stroke with an upward turn.
2. Draw the dot from the upper left corner.
3. Draw the hook below the dot.
4. Draw the sweeping stroke from the upper right corner. Make it head toward the next stroke.
5. Draw the sweeping stroke from the middle of the vertical stroke to the lower right corner. Make it broader at the end by spreading the brush gradually.

To Stop

"To Stop" by Nao

to-maru, to-meru, shi

If you drive on Japanese roads, you need to know what these signs mean.

(Thanks to Wikimedia)

(Thanks to daradaradara?)

Both signs say, “tomare,” that is, “Stop!” The police often stay hiding behind the bush near the sign. Once you ignore the sign, they will rush out of the bush and you will be fined 7,000 yen (= about US$90). Tomare is the imperative form of the verb tomaru meaning to stop moving or stop driving.

The action taken by the police was tomeru meaning to stop somebody or something.

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1. Draw the vertical stroke from the top.
2. Draw the short horizontal stroke from the center to the right.
3. Draw the shorter vertical stroke.
4. Draw the horizontal stroke from the left to the right.

To Float

"To Float" by Nao

u-ku, u-kareru, u-kabu, u-kaberu, fu

The first character of ukiyo-e is today’s character. The Oxford Dictionary of English explains that ukiyo-e is “a school of Japanese art depicting subjects from everyday life, dominant in the 17^th-19^th centuries.” You can read more details and see the pictures showcased at this exhibition – the Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance. Ukiyo is this transitory world. The “uki” of “ukiyo” comes from the intransitive verb “uku” meaning to float. The transitive verb “ukasu” and “ukaseru” mean “to float something” or “to save some amount of money.”

A floating mind might provoke flirtation. If you have a lover and happen to cheat, you may be nagged as “uwa ki mono.” Uwaki means flirtation. “Uwaki suru” is the verb meaning “to flirt with somebody.”

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1. Draw the dot in the upper-left corner of the character.
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. Begin to draw the right-hand side of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke on the top.
5. Draw the dot just below where you finish the previous stroke.
6. Draw the dot next to the previous stroke.
7. Draw the sweeping dot from the upper right.
8. Draw the hook consisting of a horizontal stroke and sweeping stroke.
9. Draw the curve with an upward turn.
10. Draw the horizontal stroke crossing the previous stroke.

One’s Flesh, Body, and Self

"One’s Flesh, Body, and Self" by Nao

mi, shin

Today’s character can be contrasted with shin (heart). Shinshin means mind and body. The former shin is heart or mind; the latter is today’s character meaning body or flesh.

Both shintai and karada means body. Shintai is more formal.

Compared to karada meaning a body or an entity, today’s character has some contents. When you are talking about somebody’s story and you say, “mi ga aru” or “nakami ga aru,” it means that the story has contents. Incidentally, “… ga aru” means something exists. When you are talking about somebody’s story and you say, “mi ni naru,” you mean that the story gives something beneficial to you. And, “… ni naru” means “to become something.”

I feel that “mi” is closer than karada. If you agonize, you feel as if your flesh is slashed. Such a feeling is described as “mi wo kirareru omoi.” In this, “kirareru” means “to be cut.” If you learn something in a violent way, you feel as if something soaks into you through flesh. It is described as “mi ni shimiru.” Of this, the “shimiru” means “to soak.”

This character is also related to one’s status. Mibun is one’s class or status although it’s a classical word. Kakusa (inequality) sounds more modern. Both “minoue” and “shinjō” literally mean “on one’s body.” They are about one’s condition or background. In addition, “minoue banashi” is one’s life story and shinjō sho is one’s résumé, which is usually submitted to spouse candidates via a matchmaker.

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1. Draw the sweeping stroke on the top.
2. Draw the vertical stroke from the end of the previous stroke.
3. Draw the hook with an upward turn.
4. Draw the upper horizontal stroke between the vertical strokes.
5. Draw the lower horizontal stroke between the vertical strokes.
6. Draw the sweeping stroke from the left to the upper right.
7. Draw the sweeping stroke like a sword from the upper right to the lower left.