Buddha or France

hotoke, futsu, butsu

Hotoke means Buddha.
Buddhism is bukkyō.
Buddhists are bukkyōto.
The “to” of bukkyōto means students.

Japanese people are said to be unreligious but most of them die as Buddhists.
Older Japanese people like “hō ji” (Buddhist memorial services) because hōji
is the only event their estranged family and relatives meet.

Amitabha is called amidabutsu or amida, which is another name of Buddha.
In some Buddhist denominations, the name Amitabha is prayed. A prayer to
Amitabha is nembutsu.

Big statues of Buddha are called daibutsu.

If you visit Tōdaiji Temple, you can see the Great Buddha of Nara (the photo below).
TANAKA Juuyoh took this great photo.

Buddha and France are irrelevant, right? Why, France?
Before katakana became prevalently used, kanji was applied to foreign
words. During the early Meiji period, so many compounds were coined to
translate Western languages. For words with abstract meanings, some
intellectuals chose kanji with equivalent meanings carefully. For the names of
objects or countries, only the sound of kanji was considered. Most countries’
names can be written in substitute kanji characters. France begins with today’s
character. The country is sometimes called futsu.

1. Write the sweeping stroke from the top.
2. Write the vertical stroke.
3. Write the rotated chevron. Divide this stroke
   into two when you write this in calligraphy.
4. Write the dot.