Today's kanji is 母.
The blue part describes "nipples / breast".
The red part describes "woman's body".
Woman with nipples.
(Usually women have nipples though...)
Can you guess the meaning?
Special hint : What anniversary is today? (^o^)
See the comments page for the answer!
"Woman with nipples."
ReplyDelete母 means "mother".
For example...
お母さん (okaasan) : mother
母国 (bokoku) : mother country
祖母 (sobo) : grandmother
It's the mother's day today.
Did you do any special thing?
I gave my mum "Nintendo DS".
Do you know that?
She really wanted to have the game!
(^ ^;)
This kanji brings up an issue I
ReplyDeletehave. In the case of "haha",
母、there are two separate strokes
for the "nipple" portion. However,
in 毎 or 海, which have the same
radical, the two strokes have
become one. I'm guessing it's just
for simplicity... What do you guys
think?
Originally, I studied Chinese, and
it's interesting to see the changes
that have take place (like 國 vs 国)
over the years, and the different
paths of simplification that
countries have taken. I wish there
were a book (maybe there is?) called
"The history of kanji". Groovy!
Akiko, your mom plays video games?
Haha. That's cool! My mom too, is
a gamer (even though she's now a
grandmother!). She plays Gamecube
and is a total Mario Kart Master.
The image of your mom sitting on the
train, intently playing Nintendogs
on her Nintendo DS just cracks
me up.. ;-)
Superstructure, you can find kanji
dictionaries that have sections with
a discussion of radicals and whatnot
(albeit in Japanese...). It's very
handy to find one that tells you the
names of the radicals: のぎへん,
さんずい、くさかむり、ころもへん、など。
A woman with nipples?! (*o*) Say it ain't so!! (XoX);;
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe that was too much on the sarcasm sillyness. (-_-); This is actually one of my favorite Kanji to write, since it wasn't just a 山 or a 田 with a radical in it. Sure it has 女, but its interesting to see how 女 becomes 母. I guess its true what they say, "a baby changes everything." (^.^)
As for mother's day, I didn't do anything particularly special for my mom (we usually don't do much, since we try to show her appreciation all throughout the year) but we did barbeque in the evening with my family. We have this really big grill to cook lots of meat, and it tastes really good when we cook on it, so we decided to do that so my mom wouldn't cook on Sunday. I did most of the cooking, since I'm the oldest who still lives at home (I'm 20, my older brother's live outside of our house now, but they came to visit) luckily it came out well.
Akiko, that's a really nice gift you got your mother, I didn't realize that would be a great gift idea for your mother, perhaps I should try that sometime. ^_^
I told my Japanese friends about the history of the kanji 母.
ReplyDeleteMost of them didn't know the history and some people thought that's my own make-up history because it's too funy!! (^ ^;)
>idlejikan
1600km! w(゜Ｏ゜) w
You live very far from your mother's place!
How often do you see her?
>Do you like the game too?
Actually, I haven't tried that yet.
But it sounds fun.
I'll try it when I see my mum next time. :)
>Life in the superStructure
I know a very nice book for kanji but I cannot remember the name...
I tried to find it on internet and amazon, but I couldn't.
I'll check the book in this week and post comments with the information again!
>Brian
Do Chinese use 國 instead of 国?
I didn't know that.
In the past, 國 was used in Japan, too.
But now the kanji is just for some names.
>Akiko, your mom plays video games?
Haha. That's cool!
Yeah, I think playing game is good for her brain, too.
Don't you think so? (^ ^)
Maybe I should give her Gamecube
or Mario Kart for her birthday!
If you know any other fun game for "middle aged ladies", let me know please!
>Jair
>I guess its true what they say, "a baby changes everything." (^.^)
Interesting!
Yeah, kanji sometimes inply "deep meaning", right? (^o^)
Your mother's day sounds nice, too!
It's the best present for mothers that they have time to spend with their family, I think.
Well, I'll try to cook something for the next mother's day! (^ ^)
There is a pretty popular kanji book
ReplyDelete(It should be in any large bookstore
in Japan, and amazon has it)
called
"Kanji Pict-o-Graphix : Over 1,000
Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics"
I think this is a good book to use
as a starting point.
Another one that might be worth a
look:
"Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete
Course on How Not to Forget the
Meaning and Writing of Japanese
Characters" (James W. Heisig).
www.kanjiclinic.com
This site is fabulous.
Click "Previous columns" to get a
list of "clinics" on kanji. Very
interesting and educational (but not
as fun or colorful as Akiko's!).
Although Taiwan still uses the old
style 國, mainland China uses a
simplified version (多分「国」
でしょう). I first studied using a
book from Taiwan, and so I'm biased
toward the more flowery looking
漢字of olden days--especially
comparing to the simplified Chinese
character for love!!! (It's
terrible--the simplified character
has no HEART. How can there be
love without heart?).
Details here:
http://www.goodcharacters.com/chinese.
symbol.for.love.html
I saw 國 on a school gate in Japan.
It was something like 國立なんとか
大学. A usage that is few and far
between. Taiwan uses 學 vs the
simplified 学. Japan seems to use
a mixture of traditional and simplified 漢字...
Oh, on the topic of 女、I heard an
interesting story somewhere about
female ninja being called
"kunoichi". Is this true? It's
interesting because, くノ一 (kunoichi) can be put together to
form 女.
Do you see it?
Oh, I totally think video games are
good for keeping the brain going.
(it's a good excuse for me to play
too! 笑). Although difficult at
first, Mario Kart is great fun!
Have a nice week!
"Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters"
ReplyDeleteWritten by Kenneth G. Henshall
This is the one that I wanted to remember the other day! (^ ^)
Do you know this book?
This book is quite thick and there are a lot of explanations in English for each kanji.
I've seen this book in "Kinokuniya" in Shinjuku and "BOOK 1st" in Shibuya.
Also I found this book in Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804820384/sr=8-1/qid=1148473772/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8266580-5753758?%5Fencoding=UTF8
>Brian
>I saw 國 on a school gate in Japan.
Exactly!
I guess some schools use the old one because it seems like "traditional school".
Do you have similar custom in your country?
>I heard an interesting story somewhere about female ninja being called "kunoichi". Is this true?
I've heard the name, but I'm not sure about the details...
How did you know the name!?
You are much more familiar with Japanese culture rather than me. (^ ^;)
>I've just come back from holiday. It's good to escape daily hustle and bustle for a while. :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea!
I went to Thailand last month.
I didn't do anything special, but I relaxed and had really nice time on the beautiful beach.
(^ ^)
Your blog is very useful! And also interesting!
ReplyDeleteCould you maybe write the definition of the kanji in hiragana also? I can't read very much kanji yet. Thanks for the extra effort!
ありがと ございます！