Lesson 9 Flashcards
ri
[185]
里
The key word refers to “a Japanese word for measuring distances. One ri is about 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles. The kanji depicts how the measure came to be used. Atop we see the rice field, and below the element for land. Those four sections you see in the rice field are actually measurements of land, much the same as farm-sections in the United States have given us the notion of a ‘country mile.’ The land division based on the size of a rice field is called a ri.”
*rice field, soil/land
*P: computer (a pictograph of an old desktop computer)
black
[186]
黒
“Like most things electrical, a computer, too, can overheat. Just imagine flames pouring out of it and charring the keyboard, the monitor, and your desk a sooty black color.”
*computer/ri, flames
black ink
[187]
墨
The connection with the first primitive is obvious, black. The second, soil, refers to where the raw materials for making ink come from, the soil.
*black, soil/land
carp
[188]
鯉
Here we see a prized carp competition. People have come from all over Japan with the largest carp fish that they have raised. The carp were all very close in size, so it took a computer to determine which was the largest.
*fish, computer/ri
quantity
[189]
量
Two different types of quantity: quantity of time and quantity of distance. The quantity of time is measured in the number of nightbreaks, and the quantity of distance is measured in the rural ri measurement.
*nightbreak, ri/computer
rin
[190]
厘
“One rin is equal to about 1/1000 of a yen - or rather was worth that much when it still made economic sense to mint them. While inflation took its toll on this kanji as a monetary unit, it survived with the not at all surprising sense of something ‘very very tiny’. The kanji shows a cliff with a computer under it, apparently because it has been pushed over into the abyss by someone fed up with the thing. The total market value of one home computer that has fallen over rock and bramble for several hundred feet: about one rin!”
*cliff, computer/ri
bury
[191]
埋
“When we speak of burying something (or someone, for that matter), we usually mean putting them under ground. Only here, we are burying our beloved computer that has served us so well these past years. Behind us a choir chants ‘Dies irae, dies illa’ and there is much wailing and grief among the bystanders as they pass by to shovel a little dirt into what will be its final resting place.”
*soil, computer/ri
P: hood
Outside of 同
Looks similar to wind, but the right side of wind hooks outward and this one hooks inward. Wind blows out, hoods and glass canopies keep things in.
It can also represent glass canopy and a helmet.
same
[192]
同
“Take the key word to connote the sameness that characterizes the life in a community of monks. They all have the same habits, including the ‘habit’ they wear on their backs. Here we see the monk’s cowl, drawn down over the eyes so that all you can see when you look at him is a mouth.” Imagine a row of them all together chanting, all their mouths moving in unison. They all look the same.
*hood/helmet/glass canopy, one, mouth
*P: monks (dressed in a common habit)
den
[193]
洞
“The key word den refers to an animal lair hollowed out in the side of a mountain. Now if we keep to the image of the monastic life as an image for same, we can picture a den of wild beasts dressed up in habits and living the common life in a mountain cavern. To bring in the element of water we need only give them a sacred ‘puddle’ in the center of their den, the focus of all their pious attentions.”
*water, same/monks
trunk
[194]
胴
“The word trunk refers to the part of the body that is left when you have ‘truncated’ all the limbs. I can hardly think of any reason for doing so, unless one were lumberjacking corpses and needed to have them all properly pruned and made the same so they could be floated downstream without causing a body-jam.”
*part of the body/flesh, same/monks
yonder
[195]
向
“Something referred to as ‘over yonder’ is usually far off in the distance and barely within sight - like a wee drop in the distance”…“Hence this kanji begins with a drop. Then we find a sort of transparent helmet with no eyes or nose, but only a prominent mouth under it, obviously an extraterrestrial. And what is it jabbering on about with its mouth open like that? Why, about his spaceship way over yonder with its fuel tank on empty.”
*a drop, helmet/hood/glass canopy, mouth
esteem
[196]
尚
“Above we see the primitive for little attached to one of those glass canopies you might use to display a family heirloom. The littleness is important, because what is in fact on display is the shrunken, stuffed, and mounted mouth of an esteemed ancestor. We may be used to esteeming the words our forebears leave behind, but here we also esteem the very mouth that spoke them.”
*little, helmet/hood/glass canopy, mouth
character
[197]
字
Every child born into a Japanese house/home is assigned characters for their name.
*house, child
guard
[198]
守
“The notion of guarding something easily brings to mind the image of someone standing guard, like the royal soldiers in front of Buckingham Palace or the Pope’s Swiss Guard. The whole idea of hiring guards is that they should stick like glue to your house to protect it from unwanted prowlers. So go ahead and glue a guard to your house in imagination.”
*house, glue
