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.
So the only illustration of a 刀 (katana) you could find, was an anime-like figure drawing a sword edge-down (instead of edge up)? ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, thanks for the interesting blog and the examples of related kanji!
A year later, I read through this blog post again, and I see that my original comment comes across as negative. I apologize for that.
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