Study kanji origins - 刀 sword

Today, I'm going to introduce the kanji "sword" and several more characters related to sword.

1. 刀 sword

On-yomi	とう tou
Kun-yomi	かたな katana
Meaning	sword

Let's take a look at the origin of "sword".
It's the shape of a curved sword.



There is a similar character, "力 (power)".
They look very alike but they have quite different origins as seen below.
Be careful when you write them.

2. 刃 blade

There is a kanji character that quite resembles the kanji "刀".
It is "刃".

On-yomi	じん jin
Kun-yomi	は ha, やいば yaiba
Meaning	blade

The origin of "blade" is similar to "sword".


The dot on the center is a sort of a mark that indicates the blade of a sword.
Sometimes origins of kanji characters have dots or lines to describe what you can not show by a simple illustration.

The other examples are "上 (up)" and "下 (down)".

3. 分 part

This is also another kanji-origin that is related to "sword".

On-yomi	ぶん bun, ふん fun, ぶ bu
Kun-yomi	わ(ける) wakeru, わ(かる) wakaru
Meaning	part, understand, minute

The illustration indicates that something is cut into two parts by a sword.

4. 切 cut

On-yomi	せつ setsu
Kun-yomi	き(る) kiru
Meaning	cut

Are you familiar with the kanji "七"?
I think people who have studied Japanese know it.
Yes, it means "seven".

But surprisingly, this kanji originally meant "to cut something".
According to one theory, this character "七" describes a cross-shaped cut.
However, coincidentally in ancient China, the pronunciation of "cut" and "seven" were the same.
So they came to use this character to mean "seven".
They had to prepare another kanji that means "to cut" instead of "七", and they put "七" and "刀" together to make a new kanji.

5. 剣 sword

On-yomi	けん ken
Kun-yomi	つるぎ tsurugi
Meaning	sword

What's the difference between "刀" and "剣"?

"刀" usually indicates a single-edged and curved sword, while "剣" usually indicates double-edged sword.

This is the old script of "剣".



It is a combination of "僉" and "刀".
The bottom part of the "僉" means two people, and the meaning of this character is "a couple of" or "both".
"剣" is a double-edged sword, so they chose "僉" to make the new kanji "剣".


By the way, the right part of this character "刂" stands for "sword".
So it is easy to remember if you think that kanji characters with the "刂" are roughly related to "sword".
These are some examples.

On-yomi	し shi
Kun-yomi	さ(す) sasu, とげ toge
Meaning	to stab, thorn

On-yomi	さく saku
Kun-yomi	けず(る) kezuru
Meaning	to whittle, to level

download and print a practice sheet here.

How was hiragana established?

Long time ago in Japan we didn't have any kanji characters.
It is considered that it was around 500 A.D. that Chinese people introduced kanji to Japanese people.

However at that time, although men could use kanji, women were not allowed to use kanji.
Even though they wanted to send letters to their friends or someone they like, they were not able to do that because using kanji was prohibited.
So they thought about how they could send letters.


They decided to modify the kanji and create original characters from them.
It is speculated that the characters they used are the origins of hiragana.
Here are some examples how kanji changed into hiragana.







By the way, as you may know, there are 50 of hiragana but there used to be more.
Look at the pictures below. These are other versions of "か" and "の".




You can see these characters in Japanese old poetry "waka".
There are a lot more hiragana variations besides "か" and "の".
Depending on the preference or contexts, authors can choose proper characters for their poetries.

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I prepared hiragana practice sheet.
If you are interested in practicing hiragana, please download them.

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Japanese kanji study - 女

This is an illustrations of a sitting girl.
And this is an origin of a kanji.
What does this stand for?
The answer is ...
↓↓↓











It's "女" (woman)

On-yomi	じょ jo,にょ nyo
Kun-yomi	おんな on-na, め me
Meaning	woman

And this is how this kanji has changed.




In this post, I'm going to introduce some kanji related to women.
Let's take a look at the pictographs below.



The pictograph on the left is "女", now what do you think the pictograph on the right stands for?

The difference is that there are two dots on the pictograph on the right.
The two dots indicate breasts.



The answer is "母" (mother)

On-yomi	ぼ haha
Kun-yomi	はは haha
Meaning	mother

Compare the two kanji.


As seen above, some kanji look different but the origins are almost the same.




I introduce another couple of kanji.



This is a combination of "女" (woman) and "子" (child), which describes a woman holding her baby.
The kanji "好" has come to mean "to like".

On-yomi	こう kou
Kun-yomi	す(く) suku, この(む) konomu
Meaning	like

Here's another origin of a kanji.



The pictograph describes "女" and "the right hand with hairpins".
Women used to wear hairpins for a wedding party.
So the meaning of the kanji is "wife".

On-yomi	さい sai
Kun-yomi	つま tsuma
Meaning	wife

download and print a practice sheet here.

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Regular correction tickets are below.

Monthly theme April 2017

First, download and print a practice sheet here.

Contents

• 入学 entrance into a school
• 若葉 young leaves
• 山紫水明 a scenic place

Level 1

入学

Yomi	にゅうがく nyugaku
Meaning	entrance into a school

Level 2

若葉

Yomi	わかば wakaba
Meaning	young leaves

Level 3

山紫水明

Yomi	さんしすいめい sanshi-suimei
Meaning	a scenic place

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You can get free correction ticket now!
If you are interested, please contact me from the button below.



Regular correction tickets are below.