郷 (KYŌ, GŌ, sato: (1) village; (2) countryside; country)
To see these yomi in action, check out the following word, which has two possible readings:
故郷 (furusato or kokyō: hometown, birthplace, old village, native place, old home) old + hometown
The first reading, furusato, is a kun-kun combination, which tells us how people in Old Japan referred to their hometowns. Meanwhile, kokyō is an on-on combination that sounds a bit more formal to Japanese ears.
By the way, people from Kyoto aren’t the only ones who can create semi-rhyming sentences about their origins. How about this:
東京は故郷だ。
Tōkyō wa kokyō da.
Tokyo is my hometown.東京 (Tōkyō) east + capital
私たちは、 東京は故郷なので、同郷の友です。
Watashitachi wa, Tōkyō wa kokyō nanode, dōkyō no tomo desu.
We’re both from Tokyo, so we’re friends with a common birthplace.
私たち (watashitachi: we)
同郷 (dōkyō: same birthplace) same + village
友 (tomo: friend)
I’m not sure if that was useful! Probably not! But perhaps this spinoff on 故郷 will be:
生まれ故郷 (umarekokyō: one’s birthplace)
birth + old + hometown
Why the need for this word when 故郷 already exists? In and of itself, 故郷 means “birthplace,” but it’s not clear whether 故郷 means the place one was born or the place one was raised. With 生まれ故郷, there is no room for doubt; one is definitely talking about a birthplace.
Even so, 生まれ故郷 isn’t quite good enough for bureaucrats. This word has a sentimental feeling to it, and that doesn’t fly on official forms. For birth certificates and such, people write “birthplace” this way:
出生地 (shusseichi: birthplace) to produce + life + place
