終戦後 (shūsengo: postwar) end + war + after
終了後 (shūryōgo: after the end (of something)) end + thing + after
These two compounds have something wonderful in common. In both the first and third characters of each, we see the pictograph of a silkworm cocoon
, a major component in the thread kanji 糸 (ito).
At least one more 後 compound offers a repetition of shapes, or a near repetition, I should say:
後刻 (gokoku: afterward, later) after + to engrave
The repetition is inexact, because 刻 doesn’t quite contain the silkworm cocoon pictograph. But when I look at 後刻, I somehow see a waterfall of cocoon pictographs cascading from the upper left to the lower right in each kanji.
