In Kanji Pict-o-graphix, Michael Rowley explains that 阝 means “village” when on the right-hand side of a character and “hill” when on the left. This makes perfect sense in terms of our main kanji:
郷 (KYŌ, GŌ, sato: (1) village; (2) countryside; country)
Here’s a sample word that incorporates this kanji:
郷党 (kyōtō: people from one’s hometown)
village + factionIn other words, these are “village people”—but not the Village People!
Rowley presents several kanji to illustrate the point further:
都 (TO, TSU, miyako: metropolis)
We know this from 京都 (Kyōto: capital + metropolis).
郊 (KŌ: suburbs)
This is part of the word 郊外 (kōgai: suburbs, suburb + outside).
郵 (YŪ: mail)
It’s harder to see the village connection here. You may know this kanji from 郵便局 (yūbinkyoku: post office, mail + mail + public service).
Putting it all together, we can make the following sentence:
京都の郊外の郵便局で郷党に巡り会いました。
Kyōto no kōgai no yūbinkyoku de kyōtō ni meguriaimashita.
At the post office in a Kyoto suburb, (I) happened to meet people from my hometown.You know about all the kanji except this one:
巡り会う (meguriau: to happen to meet)
to go round + to meetI adore the 巡 kanji! Very cool looking!
To form this sentence, it truly takes a village—in fact four of them!
