| Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary |
I’ve never liked the term “passing away,” perhaps because it’s euphemistic or … I don’t know. I’ve just never liked the way it sounds. But this week, as my grandmother has been lying in a semi-conscious haze, close to death, I’ve taken comfort in the idea of a passage. That is, I like to think that she’s not passing away but rather passing through. I imagine that she’s going through a tunnel.
Much as we come into this world through a birth canal, I choose to believe that she’s working her way down a “death canal.” And that somehow makes the idea more palatable. Death is about stopping: 止. It’s about going no farther. But if she’s in a passage, then she’s still moving along, still headed somewhere, possibly floating on waves of hallucinations. Maybe it’s a trippy kind of trip, a kaleidoscope of images from a long life. She might be seeing the faces of people she loved, people who “passed through” before.
All week, I’ve visualized this kanji:
通
It means “to pass.” Not “pass away” but “pass through.” I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with this character, never knowing quite how to read it. The on-yomi can be either TSŪ or TSU, and the kun-yomi can be tō(ru), to(su), or even kayo(u). But just this week, I’ve developed a fondness for this kanji.
It even looks like a tunnel at its core:
用
The top, マ, strikes me as an ornamental crest that dresses up the tunnel. The movement radical 
indicates progress through that tunnel. And the main part, 用, well, that’s an opening, 冂, with bars that close the tunnel to the rest of us until our time comes. When it does, the bars lift briefly, admit one, and swiftly shut again.
The following links represent more passageways. Choose your destination carefully. The first three “doors” will take you farther into kanji-land. And the fourth meanders down memory lane with only the faintest sprinkling of kanji. If you have no interest in hearing more about death, elderly relatives, and personal memories, it might be best to leave that fourth door bolted. (Of course, you’ll miss photos of some hot girls in swimsuits!)
The Real Meaning of the Components …
A Passage to Words About Passages ..
And now it’s time for today’s Verbal Logic Quiz. I feel a little guilty, presenting you with a game when there’s death in the air. But what good does it do to abstain from playing whenever it’s possible to play? Life is about moving on … about passing through one event to the next. So … let the games begin!
