Kanji Flashcards
酒
This symbol can be pronounced shu or sake.
On its own, it simply means ‘alcoholic drink’, and the character combines with other kanji to make words for ‘bar’, ‘wine shop’ and many other alcoholrelated things.
To specify the drink we know as sake outside Japan, it needs to be combined with other characters.
日
This symbol is pronounced ni.
On its own, this means ‘sun’ or ‘day’.
本
This symbol is pronounced hon.
On its own, this means origin, but it can also mean book. It looks a bit like a tree, with a line through the trunk -being chopped down to make a book!
日本
Nihon : it means ‘sun’ or ‘origin’.
日本酒
Nihon-shu
However, there is a single character with the same meaning.
清
This can be pronounced sei.
On its own, it means ‘clean’ or ‘refined’ or ‘clear’.
On the left, it has the same liquid splashes used in 酒 . The part on the right actually means ‘blue’, so the character can be thought of as representing the gentle splashing of brilliant, clear, clean, blue water.
清酒
Sei-shu : ‘refined’(clear)-‘sake
The alternate for 日本酒
米
This symbol is pronounced mai. On its own, the kanji means ‘rice’. This has some visual features in common with the kanji 本 (origin) with which it should not be muddled confused.
酒サムライ
Sake Samurai
純
This symbol is pronounced jun.
On its own, the kanji means pure
純 米
Junmai : ‘pure’-‘rice’.
(The junmai category of sake is made without the addition of any high-strength distilled alcohol. Junmai can appear on its own or in combination to create junmai ginjō, or junmai daiginjō, depending on the style and production methods.)
純米酒
Junmai-shu : ‘pure’-‘rice’-‘alcoholic beverage’
純 jun
米 mai
酒 shu
清酒
Refined sake
醸
This symbol is pronounced jō.
On its own, it means ‘ferment’ or ‘brew’.
(This rather complicated kanji is made of 20 separate pen strokes. It is one of the last ones that Japanese Secondary School children learn. But for sake specialists, it is one of the first.)
吟
This symbol is pronounced gin (with a ‘hard g’, like in garden, rather than ginger).
In this context it is using the meaning ‘examine’ or ‘scrutinise’.
吟醸
Ginjō : It means ‘scrutinise(d)’ or ‘ferment’.
Sake made from highly polished rice, and fermented with great care, very slowly at low temperatures, to produce beautiful floral and fruity aromas.
大
This symbol is pronounced dai.
On its own, it means ‘big’, ‘large’ or ‘great’.
(You can think of it as a person standing up, legs parted, with their arms stretched as far as they will go, trying to show how big something is.)
大吟醸
Daiginjō : It means ‘great(ly)’ or ‘scrutinise(d)’-‘ferment’.
大 dai
Daiginjō is really just ‘big’ ginjō. A kind of ginjō sake, but with everything from the rice polishing to the meticulous care taken and the slow controlled progress of fermentation pushed to the maximum.
造
The Chinese-derived reading for this is zō (with a long ‘o’ sound, but making sure that the vowel sound is a long version of the ‘o’ in ‘pot’, rather than sounding like ‘zoo’.
On its own, this means ‘produce’ or ‘production’
本 醸 造
Original-fermentation-production.
本 hon
醸 jo
造 zo
Honjōzō can be thought of as the original style of good sake, before ginjō styles became widely available
清
Sei
Clear, clean
生
Ki
Life, genuine, live
酛
Moto
Yeast starter, yeast mash
元 - moto (origin, source, cause, basis, material)
山
Yama
mountain
廃
Hai
abolishment
山廃
Yama hai
yamahai is a combination of the first part of yama-oroshi together with first part of haishi (廃止), meaning to cease. Therefore, Yamahai simply means to cease mixing by pole.
廃 means to abolish, obsolete, cessation, discarding, abandon
特
Toku
special
別
Betsu
separate, branch off, diverge, fork, another, extra, specially
特別
Toku betsu
特 別 純 米
Toku betsu jun mai
古
Ko
old
古酒
Koshu
aged sake
精
Sei
refined
歩
Bu
walk, pace, history, steps
合
Ai
精米歩合
Seimai buai
精 Sei
米 mai
歩 bu
合 ai
田
Da
field
錦
Nishiki
treasure
山田錦
Yama da nishiki
山 yama
田 da
錦 nishiki
酛
moto
生 酛
Kimoto
生 酒
namazake
生 life, genuine, birth
酒 sake, alcohol
