RTK Lesson 4

Question 1

Animal Legs

Answer 1

ハ

*Primitive Element

These are animal legs. They can be used as grizzly bear paws, octopus tentacles, to the spindle shanks of a spider. They are, under no circumstances, to be used as human legs, nor are they to be considered as legs of furniture.

Question 2

Human Legs

Answer 2

儿

*Primitive Element

Have you ever noticed how highly evolved humans are? Even the legs are shapelier. One, straight, and the other, gracefully bent with a hook.

Question 3

Wind

Answer 3

几

*Primitive Element

Slightly pictographic, looking like a gust of wind curling and billowing. The tail is windswept. This character is called an “enclosure” because often other characters are fitting inside.

On occasion this shall also be Weather Vane. Pictographic perfection!

Question 4

Bound Up

Answer 4

勹

*Primitive Element

You can see the rope, and the gag. Bound up! Like wind, Bound Up is an “enclosure.” Sometimes it is vertically compressed and is set on top of a character with it’s little hook extending longer than the rope.

Question 5

Horns

Answer 5

ヽ′

*Primitive Element

Easy to remember. This character’s meaning ranges from horns of bulls, rams, goats, but not of musical instruments. This primitive element always appears at the top of the element to which it is related, and is always attached, or almost attached to the horizontal like that comes under it.

Question 6

Only

Answer 6

只

(Mouth, Animal Legs)

When trying to remember abstract key words like this one, it is best to attach a suggestive phrase in which the word appears. For example, “Only one of its kind.” A barker stands outside his tent at a sideshow enticing passers-by to see the creature he has inside; a pacman like monster with a huge mouth and two wee animal legs. Only one of its kind!

Question 7

Shellfish

Answer 7

貝

(Eye, Animal Legs)

Pictographic. The sea is a scary place full of wonders yet to be explored. You can imagine the terrible creatures that lie below in the deep. A giant eye on animal legs to terrify sunbathers; the shellfish from the depths!

*As a primitive, think Oysters and Clams.

Question 8

Pop Song

Answer 8

唄

(Mouth, Shellfish)

There is a lot of money to be made if one’s songs are popular. From the mouth comes the pearl, long cultivated and beautiful.

Question 9

Upright

Answer 9

貞

(Divining Rod, Shellfish)

The clam and the oyster are incapable of standing UPRIGHT. It would take a magician with his wand to pull off such a feat, which is precisely why we have this kanji.

Question 10

Employee

Answer 10

員

(Mouth, Shellfish)

Just remember the advice new EMPLOYEEs get about keeping their mouths shut and doing their jobs. Keep your mouth shut tight like a clam!

Question 11

Post a Bill

Answer 11

貼

(Shellfish, Fortune-Telling)

This kanji has to do with posting bills to a billboard. Imagine now, like a Ghibli alternative universe like spirited away, where a Chinese restaurant advertises it’s new style of fortune telling; posted to the billboard are left over clam shells with slips of paper inside like pearls of fortune.

Question 12

See

Answer 12

見

(Eye, Human Legs)

Big brother is watching you. In the future, recon drones, lenses with anthropomorphic stainless steel legs SEE all.

Question 13

Newborn Babe

Answer 13

児

(Olden Times, Human Legs)

Western mythical imagination has old “Father Time” depicted leaning on his scythe with a newborn babe crawling around his legs. In this sense, we see this kanji looks exactly as we need it to to remind us of Father Time, who is the personification of the previous year, handing over the duties of time to the equally allegorical Baby New year.

Question 14

Beginning

Answer 14

元

(Two, Human Legs)

“In the beginning…” starts the shelf of books we call the Bible. We know that in the beginning the Creator made two humans, a man and a woman. Adam and Eve. We only need two and a pair of human legs to come to the Kanji that means beginning.

Question 15

Page

Answer 15

頁

(One, Drop of, Shellfish)

We need to turn shellfish into a page of a book. The one at the top of the character tells us that we get a rather short book, in fact a book of only one page. Imagine opening the book of one page to find only a small drop of knowledge… a pearl of wisdom. A masterpiece poem of nature.

*As a primitive, this Kanji takes thee unrelated meaning of head (preferably one detached from the body), derived from the character for head.

Question 16

Stubborn

Answer 16

頑

(Beginning, Head)

The big-headed stick to their plan as it was in the beginning. This is being stubborn. Not changing, not matter what has happened after the beginning. Think Big-Headed and Beginning is stubborn.

Question 17

Mediocre

Answer 17

凡

(Wind, Drop of)

A drop in the bucket means a very small and insignificant proportion of the whole. So does in this case a drop in the wind mean mediocre, almost insignificant.

Question 18

Defeat

Answer 18

負

(Bound Up, Shellfish)

We have bound up above shellfish. Now imagine two oysters in shell-to-shell combat, and the one who is defeated being bound and gagged with seaweed, the victor towering triumphantly over it. The bound shellfish becomes the symbol of defeat.

Question 19

Ten-Thousand

Answer 19

万

(One, Bound Up)

In Japan, the unit of counting is higher than thousands; it goes to ten thousands. For instance, 40,000 would be four ten-thousands. Given that the comma is used in larger numbers to bind up a numerical unit of a thousand, it makes sense for One and Bound Up to naturally measure a ten-thousand unit.

Question 20

Phrase

Answer 20

句

(Bound Up, Mouth)

By combining two primitives Bound Up and Mouth it is easy to see how this character can get the meaning of phrase. After all, a phrase is nothing more than a number of words bound up tightly and neatly so that they will fit in your mouth.

Question 21

Texture

Answer 21

肌

(Part of Body, Wind)

Have you ever noticed how the texture of your skin is affected by the wind? A day of cycling, skiing, or sailing makes them rough and dry, and need of soft cream to soothe the burn. So whenever a part of the body get exposed to wind, its texture is affected.

Question 22

Decameron

Answer 22

旬

(Bound Up, Day)

There is simply not a good phrase or word in English for the block of ten days which this character represents. So we resurrect the classical phrase, Decameron, whose connotations of the tales of Boccaccio have done much to enrich. Actually, it refers to a journey of ten-days taken by a band of people - that is, a group of people BOUND UP for the DAYS of Decameron.

Question 23

Ladle

Answer 23

勺

(Bound up, Drop of)

If you want to build up drops of anything - water, soup, lemonade - you just use something to scoop these drops up, which is what we call a ladle. See the last drop left inside the ladle?

Question 24

Bull’s Eye

Answer 24

的

(White Bird, Ladle)

The elements of white bird and ladle easily suggest the image of a bull’s eye on it if you imagine an old rusty laden with a bull’s eye painted on it in the form of a tiny white bird, who lets out a “peep” every time you hit the target.

Question 25

Neck

Answer 25

首

(Horns, Nose)

Reading this Kanji from top down, we have: horns… nose. Together they conjure the image of a hunter’s prize mounted upon the wall above the fireplace; the moose, with its towering horns and protruding nose. In the west we would speak of cutting off the head, but in Japan it is the neck which is cut.

*NOTE THAT THE HORNS DO NOT FLOAT, ONE HAS BEEN ADDED.