waza, gi Waza is a technique. Gijutsu is technique. Kowaza means a useful method. Some jobs or tasks done quickly are hayawaza. Ginō means skill or technical skill. Gihō means technical methods. Draw the left-hand side of the character first. Draw the short horizontal stroke. Draw the vertical stroke with an upward turn. Draw the [...]

shi This character originally depicts a strong man. When I use “originally” like this, it always means when it came from China because kanji was brought from China to Japan. For some characters, we have Japanese original meanings. In Japanese, today’s character means samurai (a warrior) which is Japanese original. And it also means a [...]

hashi (bashi), kyō We call a bridge “hashi.” The names of bridges end with “bashi,” a voiced sound of hashi. In the neighbor of Tokyo station alone, there are some places called “… bashi.” For example, Nihonbashi, Kyōbashi, and Shinbashi. These names suggest that there used to be bridges in ancient times. The bridge called [...]

to-bu, hi Who takes the action “tobu”? Birds and airplanes do. Tobu and “hikō suru” are almost the same. They are verbs meaning “to fly.” Hikō means flight. Hikōchū means on flight. This may be bad news for those who suffer hay fever. Pollen also flies around (tobu). Hiyaku has both good and bad meanings. [...]

irodo-ru, irodori, sai Imagine a monochrome scene, a monochrome dish etc. Adding even the slightest color to them, you can make them colorful. This is so-called adding irodori. Irodori often means added colors. It sounds more aesthetic than iro (color). The verb irodoru means that by adding colors or other characteristics, you make something look [...]

tada Nothing is more expensive than things that are available free of charge. To mean this, we say, “tada yori takai mono wa nai.” This saying tells us that if you get something for free, you must repay more than what you get. Repayment often costs more than you get. Tada means free of charge. [...]

mo-eru, mo-yasu, mo-su, nen We separate garbage into two types: flammable and inflammable. The former is called “moeru gomi”; the latter, “moenai gomi” or “funen gomi.” Garbage is gomi. Talking about cars, we often compare nenpi, which means “fuel consumption.” It comes from the cost of fuel, that is, nenryō. The verb “moyasu” means “to [...]

sara Plates are expressed using this character. When we talk about dish plates casually, we call them osara. We have a variety of plates and trays. Today we’re going to categorize words including sara or zara, a voiced sound of sara, into three groups: “plates in a particular shape and size or from a particular [...]

yuda-neru, i This character depicts a drooping ear of rice or an obedient woman. Such a hieroglyphic depiction engendered meanings such as to entrust and to leave something to somebody else. However, this does not mean dependency. Most words including this character are used in rather formal settings. The verb yudaneru means to entrust. When [...]

pēji We read this character pēji but most of the time we write the word in katakana. It indicates the number of pages in a book or magazine. Unless you write Japanese academic essays, you would never use this character. But this is one of the radicals which are used as part of kanji characters [...]