mikado, tei An emperor is called mikado, kōtei or tennō. Japanese emperors are called tennō. The kō of kōtei and nō of tennō are the same character meaning a ruler. Napoleon crowned himself as an emperor. He is called kōtei. Emperor penguin is known as kōtei pengin. Teikoku is an empire.

tagaya-su, kō The verb tagayasu means to cultivate. What farmers do is to cultivate the land. It is said, “to chi wo tagayasu.” One of my favorite words composed of four characters is “seikō u doku,” which means that we cultivate the land on fine days and read books on rainy days.

kyū In words including this character, it means to supply or to give. For example, kyūryō and kyūyo mean salary. Self-sufficiency is expressed by “Ji kyū ji soku.” Another reading of this character is tamau, which is a classical honorific meaning “to give.” Combined with another verb, tamau expresses respect for somebody who does the [...]

i This is one of the most vulnerable organs. Its reading is “i” and the meaning is the stomach. The upper part depicts food. The lower part is the flesh radical. Some body parts like lungs and the liver have the flesh radical called nikuzuki. The zuki of nikuzuki is the same as the moon [...]

habu-ku, kaeri-miru, sei, shō Two major meanings of this character are to omit and to examine. To Omit The verb habuku means to omit or to exclude something. We often omit something, saying habuku, when we think it is redundant and want to avoid repeating the same thing. Although we always exclude any mention of [...]

mo-ru, saka-ru, saka-n, sei, jō Moru is a verb meaning to pile up something like a mountain. Successful events and thriving business can be expressed by words including this character. Moriagaru, for example, means that an event such as a party gets lively. A big party is expressed as “seidaina pātei.” When your business is [...]

mu-re, mu-reru, mura-garu, gun Gregariousness can be expressed by today’s character. A group of people, a crowd of people, a throng of people, a herd of cows, a flock of birds or sheep, a pack of wild animals, a troop of monkeys and so on are called mure. When mure is large, it is called [...]

chitsu Chisso is nitrogen. Chissoku means suffocation. The verb “chissoku suru” means to be choked or to be suffocated.