Browsing the archives for the Nara tag
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 [...]
mon, kado This character depicts a gate with two door flaps. A gate is mon. One of the Japanese historical gates is Suzakumon, which is part of a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. The su of Suzakumon means vermilion; zaku, a sparrow; and mon, a gate. You can retrieve an English brochure on Suzakumon -> [...]
kiyo-i, hijiri, sei, shō Shōtokutaishi (Prince Shōtoku) and Shōmutennō (Emperor Shōmu) are historical figures whose names begin with today’s character. Both lived in Nara. Shōtokutaishi was a politician. Shōmutennō issued an edict that the huge statue of the Great Buddha be built. In those days, Shō did not mean Holy in a sense of Christianity. [...]
yama, san Yama is a mountain. Most Japanese mountains have the suffix -san, such as Fujisan (Mt. Fuji) between Shizuoka and Yamanashi, Asosan (Mt. Aso) in Kumamoto, Zaōsan (Mt. Zaō) in Tōhoku, Rokkōsan (Mt. Rokkō) in Kōbe to name a few. The suffix –yama is similarly used for some mountains. Some examples are Kurohimeyama (Mt. [...]
koromo, i This character means clothes. It, however, sounds classical. We don’t say koromo wo tsukeru or matou any more. Tsukeru means to put on, and matou, to wear. Koromogae is one of the remaining words. It means a seasonal change of clothing. In Hyakunin isshu or classical Japanese poetry, you can find the word [...]
tada-su, tada-shii, masa, sei, shō If something is correct or right, we say it is tadashii, of which shii is written in hiragana. When you read it sei, it becomes a math jargon. It expresses positive numbers. One of the Japanese oldest treasure storages is Shōsoin in Nara, whose name begins with this character. What‘s [...]