Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary A long time ago, we talked about terms that contain back-to-back kanji but that don't merit the repetition kanji 々. Here's a new candidate for the collection: 直接接触 (chokusetsu-sesshoku: direct contact)     straight + contact + contact + contact The character 接 appears twice, using the yomi SETSU both times. But these identical twins have hooked up with other kanji, not with each other. It's more of a double-date than an incestuous situation, if that makes any sense. To put it more simply, we're seeing the union of two compounds, each of which happens to include 接. That's why the two instances of 接 have no relationship to each other here. ... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Before boarding a flight to Europe this summer, I passed through the security gate and sat down to put my shoes on again. When I looked up, a multilingual sign caught my attention. In English, it said, "Don't touch the table," which struck me as strange. Could someone undermine security merely by touching a table? If so, it seemed there wasn't much security to be had. I worried about that for a moment until I noticed the Japanese version of this sentence. I'm going from a vague memory here, but the sentence was something like this: テーブルを触らないでください。 Tēburu o sawaranai de kudasai. Or was it longer than that? I know I recognized everything except 触. Leafing... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Sometimes it's wonderful to find that the Japanese (or the Chinese before them) have coined a word for concepts that don't exist in English. But occasionally I have the opposite feeling, as with this compound: 脱輪 (datsurin: wheel going off the road, usually into a ditch; wheel flying off its axle)     to take off + wheel Why did they need to coin a word for these disasters? How often do they happen in Japan?! Last week we investigated the way 輪 (RIN, wa) can mean "ring, circle, loop." Now we'll look at its other meanings, starting with "wheel." 輪 as Representing a Wheel ... Wheel Power At the link, you'll find sentences in which 輪... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Last week we encountered this fun compound: 花環 (hanawa: wreath, garland)     flower + circle The following version is actually much more common: 花輪 (hanawa: wreath, garland)     flower + circle The second kanji has changed, but everything else remains the same: the yomi of hanawa, the meaning of "wreath, garland," and the flower + circle breakdown. Although 環 and 輪 look very different, both have the kun-yomi of wa, and both can mean "ring." These similarities make them something like dead ringers! Another Hanawa ... However, they're not exactly alike. As we saw, 環 (KAN, wa) can have two meanings: 1. ring,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Well, a promise is a promise. I told you that no matter how much 環 intimidated me, especially in the context of 環境 (kankyō: environment, situation), I would eventually return to this wild beast of a kanji and tame it. Fortunately, 環 is not a bad-looking character. Let's have a better look: 環 The radical, 王, is symmetrical, if slightly cramped and warped now that it's been pushed off to the left. On the right-hand side, the top part makes a strong geometric statement, like a row of small windows. The 一 ... well, who can find anything wrong with a horizontal line? And as for the bottom part, the only thing that bothers me is a tiny stroke that throws off the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Hey, it's 08/08/08. Whether you come from a country where they put the year first, the month first, or the day first, it's 08/08/08. (That is, unless you're reading this in Japan, in which case it's probably at least the 9th.) How perfect that is for today's discussion about boundaries! The shapes of both 0 and 8 enclose spaces, so these digits constitute boundaries of a sort. (A stupid joke comes to mind. What did the 0 say to the 8? The answer: "Hey, nice belt." OK, you didn't hear that from me.) Last week, we looked at 境 (KYŌ, KEI, sakai), which can mean "boundary." In the words we saw, 境 tended to refer to skinny lines dividing two entities. For instance, we ran... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the last blog, we encountered the following words: 順境 (junkyō: favorable circumstances, prosperity)     favorable + situation 環境 (kankyō: environment, situation)     to surround + situation Clearly, 境 (KYŌ, KEI, sakai: boundary, situation) is clamoring for a closer look. For starters, it might help to crank up the size: 境 Taken alone, 境 strikes me as a cute, perky kanji—perhaps a distant cousin of 意 (I: will, heart, mind). Given that 境 breaks down into recognizable, simple components (土, 立, 日, and 儿), it's not at all unfriendly. On the Etymology of 境 ... But when it appears in 環境, I feel nearly blinded... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Last week, I dangled a promise before you. I said that reading 順 words about organizing objects would help you think more clearly. This week, I'm willing to bet that another set of 順 words will have a very different effect. As we saw last time in a discussion of etymology, 順 (JUN) can mean "order, sequence." But this character can also mean "to obey, submit to, follow." And that's just what bothers me! To be sure, compliance has its uses. When we "go with the flow," life becomes considerably easier. The following compound helps make that happen: 順応 (junnō: to adapt or conform to)     to submit to + to respond to (a situation) This word... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the last blog, we saw this word: 身長順 (shinchōjun: in order of height)     body + length + order I love all the sharp geometry in these kanji—the way a few diagonals offset the neat horizontals and verticals. But aside from that, here's what jumped out at me when I found this word in the dictionary: 順 (JUN: sequence, compliance) I'd never seen this kanji before. And I was intrigued that river (川) + head (頁) could mean "order." There's order at the head of the river? The Etymology of 順 ... The Meaning of 頁 ... If you want to put things in order, then 順 is your kanji. This character isn't sexy or mysterious. Rather, it's... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Long time no see! Speaking of length, last time we looked at 長 (CHŌ, naga), which usually means "long" or "chief." In that discussion, we encountered the following word: 足長 (ashinaga: long-leggedness)     legs + long And we saw how this compound puts the long legs in daddy longlegs: 足長おじさん (ashinaga-ojisan: daddy longlegs) Although people usually write ojisan (uncle) in hiragana, you can also represent this word with 叔父さん, which breaks down as uncle + father. On Daddy Longlegs (the Spiders) ... Other Animals with Length to Them ... Something Really Odd ... What happens if we take those long legs and turn them on... Show more