To Take Somebody Captive
shū
Do you know the character in the rectangle?
by Nao
If you know it, it’s easy to remember what this character means. The character 囚 depicts a person inside an enclosure.
A prisoner called shūjin. This word should not be a useful word.
In Bloom
sa-ku
Early spring flowers are blooming. The verb saku is to bloom. The character depicts a mouth and a smiling face. When a flower is in bloom, it’s smiling.
And (Sosho)
ka-tsu
This character 且 is included in the list of common kanji but we don’t use it. I remember that it occasionally appeared in Japanese textbooks when we learned kam bun, that is, the Chinese classics. Japanese students learn how to read the Chinese classics at high school. You can make a Chinese passage sound like Japanese if you consider that it is written in the wrong order and all hiragana is omitted. Some kanji is read twice to make Japanese translations almost equivalent to the meaning of the character. For example, today’s character also means “be about to (do something).” In Japanese, you cannot put “be about to” in one place. If it’s translated into classical Japanese, you have to say, “masani (something you are about to do) ntosu.” In such a sentence, we feel we read this kanji twice because it implies both masani and ntosu and we must put a verb between these words.
Here is a kaisho style of this kanji.
And
Inside (Sosho2)
naka, chū, jū
We have uploaded another sōsho version of this character.
Inside (Sosho)
Calligraphers’ useful dictionary is gotaijirui, which means the dictionary of five calligraphy styles. Five styles in calligraphy are kaisho, gyōsho, sōsho, tensho, and reisho. In each style, you can find many variations.
Here is a kaisho style of the character.
Inside (Kaisho) by Nao
Main or Master (Sosho)
nushi, aruji, omo, shu, su
Principles and ideologies are often called shugi. If shugi is a suffix, its equivalent in English is –ism. For example, “gō ri shugi” means rationalism. “Hei wa shugi” is pacifism. “Rak kan shugi” and “hi kan shugi” are optimism and pessimism respectively.
Other information about this character is >>> here
Its kaisho style looks like this.
"Main or Master" by Nao
Boisterous
kure, go
Unless you live in a city called Kure 呉 in Hiroshima, this character is not so useful. If the character has any meaning, it means boisterous. But you don’t have to remember it at all.
If you are interested in Chinese history or anecdotes, it may be useful to know that Go is the name of a country which existed in ancient China. One of the famous anecdotes is called “goetsu dōshū.” Etsu is another country’s name. Dōshū means the same ship. Go and Etsu were enemies to each other. People from both countries once sailed on the same boat by chance. They helped each other when a storm hit the boat and almost sank it. When enemies are in the same place, you can describe such a situation as “goetsu dōshū,” whether they help each other or not.
An Artisan (Sosho)
takumi, shō
The day before yesterday, we showed you this character in a kaisho style. Today’s one is written in a sōsho style.
Some people call their teachers shishō, oshishō, or oshishōsan. We often hear pupils of traditional art say these words.
Stylish but Coming After Something Else (Sosho)
otsu
When something or somebody rivals another, you cannot tell which one is better. In such a case, you can use the expression “kōotsu tsukegatai,” which means that you cannot decide which one is the first and which one is the second. In this, kō means the first; otsu, the second.
Here is the character in a kaisho style. And its original page is >>> here.
Stylish but Coming After Something Else
An Artisan
takumi, shō
Originally this character means a carpenter because it depicts a square or an axe. Master carpenters, craftsmen, and artisans are called takumi. Today’s character’s special reading is also takumi 匠. Both takumi mean the same.
Dezain written in katakana is a loan word meaning design. Ishō also means design. The former is more common; the latter looks more sophisticated because of the characters.
