Shodo Online Lesson 15, "hand” - Shodo with a Brush Pen

First, download and print a practice sheet here.

Contents

• Origin of "hand"
• How to write "手"
• Origin of left and right
• 左 hidari
• 右 migi
• Origin of "friends"
• 友 tomo

Origin of "hand"

Today, I'm going to introduce several kanji related to hand.
First, let's take a look at the kanji, "手 te" (hand).
It is originally a pictograph of a hand with five fingers.



Now let's practice kanji "手".

手 te

stroke order
1. Left sweep
2. Horizontal stroke
3. Horizontal stroke
4. Hook

On-yomi	しゅ shu
Kun-yomi	て te
Meaning	hand

It looks good if the third stroke is thinner than the second stroke.

Origin of left and right

Besides 手, there are more kanji based on the pictograph of a hand.

The kanji, "left" and "right" are also based on the pictograph of hand.



"左 hidari" (left) stands for the image of a left hand with a tool.


"右 migi" (right) stands for the image of a right hand with a word (or mouth).
Both are used for rituals.


Here's something you should pay attention to.
For the kanji, "left" and "right", the first and second strokes look like same, however as you can see from the pictographs, they originally stand for "left hand" and "right hand".
This difference gives them different stroke orders.
For the kanji 左, the horizontal line is going be the first stroke.
But for the kanji 右, the left sweep is going be the first stroke.

左 hidari

stroke order
1. Horizontal stroke
2. Left sweep
3. Horizontal stroke
4. Vertical stroke
5. Horizontal stroke

On-yomi	さ sa
Kun-yomi	ひだり hidari
Meaning	left

As I mentioned before, draw a horizontal stroke first.

There are no particularly difficult strokes, so you can write it without problems.

右 migi

stroke order
1. Left sweep
2. Horizontal stroke
3. Vertical stroke
4. Continued line
5. Horizontal stroke

On-yomi	ゆう yuu
Kun-yomi	みぎ migi
Meaning	right

For this kanji, draw a left sweep first.

Please compare with "left".

The 右's vertical stroke is longer, isn't it?

Being careful with this difference, please practice these kanji.

Origin of friends

There are more kanji based on the shape of hands.

Kanji "友 tomo" (friends) also came from the hand.



Two right hands are shaking hands.

友 tomo

stroke order
1. Horizontal stroke
2. Left sweep
3. Continued line and left sweep
4. Right sweep

On-yomi	ゆう yu
Kun-yomi	とも tomo
Meaning	friends

Here's an interesting thing.
For the kanji "right", I explained the first stroke is the left sweep.
As you can see, the pictograph of the "friends" is the right hand, which is the same as the kanji "right".

So the first stroke of the kanji "friends" should be left sweep.
But (I don't know why) for the kanji "friends", the first stroke is the horizontal stroke.

It's a kanji mystery!





Next time I'm going to explain the radical "hand".

Please download the guide of today's lesson here