zō, shō I found a beautiful photo taken by exfordy / Brian Snelson. It depicts today’s character. When you read this character zō, it is an elephant. Shō implies a figure or a shape you can see. Climate and weather conditions are kishō. “Shōkei mo ji” is a hieroglyph. Draw the sweeping stroke from the [...]

uma, ba, ma A horse is uma in Japanese. Bajitōfū Li Bai (701-762), a Chinese poet, wrote that a comfortable spring wind does not affect the ears of a house. From this poem, “ba ji tō fū” expresses a situation in which one does not listen to others’ opinion. Draw the vertical line to the [...]

ōkami, rō This week we are going to upload the character “wolf” in three styles: kaisho, gyōsho, and sōsho. Today’s entry is the basic one, kaisho. A wolf and wolves are called “ōkami.” The reading of this character comes from “ō,” meaning big, and “kami,” meaning God. This suggests that ōkami used to be regarded [...]

neko, byō “Neko” is a cat and “koneko” is a kitten. Like the English word “cat,” the Japanese “neko” has got idiomatic words and phrases. Here are some examples. “Neko no hitai” is a cat’s forehead. It’s a small piece of land. People sometimes express their land as “nekono hitaihodo.” It means their property is [...]