Kanji study - 止 stop

Have you ever seen the kanji character "止"?
It means "stop", and the origin of this character is a footprint.
Please take a look at the picture below.


In this post, I'll introduce some kanji characters that are related to the character "止".

歩 walk

The origin of this character is a pair of footprints.

足 leg

I already introduced this kanji in the previous post.
This kanji is a combination of "口" and "止".
The "口" stands for the shape of a kneecap.

走 run

This kanji is a combination of a footprint and a person.
The upper part represents the shape of a person who is running.

此 here

The left part is a footprint, and the right part is a woman who is turning sideways.(There are a couple of different theories though.)

Kanji practice sheet

I prepared a practice sheet.
If you are interested, please download it.

Kanji study - colors

This time, I'll show you some kanji characters that are related to colors.

The kanji origins of colors

The origin of red 赤

It's a combination of the two pictographs.
The upper part indicates a person who is spreading his arms and legs, the origin of the kanji "大 big".
The bottom part stands for "火 fire".
The kanji "赤 red" comes from "big fire".

The origin of blue 青

It might sound strange, but this character consist of the kanji character "生 life" and "丼 water in a well".
(By the way, the kanji "丼" is usually used for "a bowl of rice" nowadays.)
So the bottom part is not "月 moon".

The origin of yellow 黄

There are 2 different theories to the origin of this character.
The first theory is from the shape of a torch.
According to another theory, it represents an arrow with fire.

The origin of black 黒

The upper part is a kiln.
The bottom part is fire.
When they made sumi ink, they put fire in a kiln to collect soot.
The shape of a kiln and fire became the kanji "黒 black".

The origin of white 白

As I introduced in this post, although there are some different theories, the origin of the kanji "白" is the shape of a skull.

The origin of green 緑

It's a combination of "糸 thread" and the old kanji "彔 peel".
The origin of the right part, "彔" is a peeled bamboo with a knife.
The color of a bamboo is green, so this kanji means green.

The origin of purple 紫

It's a combination of "糸 thread" and "此 here".
The character "此" also implies the meaning "between", so this kanji stands for the color between blue and red.
As seen above, some kanji characters that represent colors contain "糸 thread".
According to a researcher, it is because cloths can be dyed.

Kanji practice sheet

I prepared a practice sheet.
If you are interested, please download it.

Kanji for body parts

As you may know, kanji characters usually come from shapes of objects.
The kanji characters for body parts are no exception.
Today, I'll explain some origins of kanji characters for body parts.

Kanji origins of face parts

The origins of these characters come from the shape of the body parts.

目 eye

耳 ear

口 mouth

鼻 nose

Before introducing this kanji, I think I need to show another kanji character.
First take a look at the kanji below.

This kanji "自" originally meant "nose" in ancient China, but as time went by, the meaning has changed.
When people talk about themselves, they point at their nose.
So this character came to mean "myself".

To differentiate between "nose" and "myself", they made another kanji that only meant "nose".
The bottom part of the character stands for the sound of nasal breathing.(We don't usually use this character anymore.)


They combined these two characters to make a new kanji that represents "nose".

眉 eyebrow

In ancient China, the priestess put decorations on their eyebrow.
The shape of an eye and the decorated eyebrow became this kanji.

手 hand

足 leg

This kanji is a combination of "口" and "止".
But "口" is not "mouth", but it is the shape of a kneecap.
"止" came from the shape of a foot print.

Kanji practice sheet

I prepared a practice sheet.
If you are interested, please download it.