A Passage to Words About Passages

Scads of compounds feature 通, but for today, I want to examine only those approximating the idea of a passage. In the most literal sense, we find this:

通路 (tsūro: aisle, passageway, path; kayo(i)ji: path, route)
     to pass by + route

Here’s a close cousin:

通り道 (tōrimichi: passage, path, route, one’s way to)
     to pass by + way

For some reason, this term brings to mind those charming old Greek myths where people were wandering about, trying to find their loved ones in Hades. I can see them as they stop to ask for directions: “Excuse me, do you know the way to Hades? Do you know the 通り道?”

Passing Through the Hospital …

Now, check this out:

通力 (tsūriki: supernatural power)     to pass through + power

I knew there was something supernatural about 通! Maybe it does connect us to the world beyond! Here’s a related word:

神通力 (jintsūriki: supernatural power)
     god + to pass through + power

In my intuition about this issue, maybe I showed a bit of the following:

天眼通 (tengantsū: clairvoyance)     heaven + eyeball + through

Strangely, once you start scrutinizing 通 words for any connection to death (which they really don’t have), it’s hard not to see lots of 通 words through that lens. Take these words, for instance:

通り越す (tōrikosu: to go past/beyond, to pass through)
     to pass through + to exceed

She’s going … beyond.

通過駅 (tsūka eki: station at which the train does not stop)
     to pass through + to pass by + station

This is a compound about the Shinkansen and other types of trains. The first part, 通過, means “passing.” And 駅 is station, so it’s a station through which some trains pass without stopping. But when I see the definition, I can’t help hearing, “Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” Except here it becomes, “Don’t ask where the train stops. It stops for thee. Unless you’re at a 通過駅. Then you’re OK, at least on weekdays during commute hours, while this offer is valid.”

通夜 (tsuya: wake, vigil, deathwatch)     through + night

It almost gives me the creeps to think that I might have been onto something when I associated 通 with death! This compound alludes to at least two possibilities:

• The day before a funeral, there’s a ceremony in which monks and visitors bid farewell to the dead and console the family.
• After a death or funeral, some mourners stay up all night.

Flip the compound around, and you find a very different yomi but a similar meaning:

夜通し (yodōshi: all night long)
     night + continuing

In this case, the -通し is actually a suffix meaning “continuing.”

Well, this has been a little gloomy, so I’ll end with a 通 word that gives off a very happy feeling:

望み通り (nozomidōri: just as one wishes)
     to wish + in accordance with

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