The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji. Kenneth G. Henshall

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suggest interpretation as 人 41 ‘person’ with 十 35 ‘ten’, representing ‘ten people [each one hundred years old]’. This was the traditional interpretation (Shuowen), but it is incorrect, as in early times the graph close in shape to the modern 十 stood for ‘seven’ 七 32. Shirakawa takes it as a version of the old graph for 人 ‘person’ modified to represent ‘thousand’ by the addition of a horizontal stroke, with 人 as a phonetic element (a view shared by Katō). BK1957:104; AS2007:424; SS1984:515; KJ1985:84.

      Mnemonic: ADD A STROKE ON TOP, AND TEN BECOMES A THOUSAND

      50

      L5

      川

      SEN, kawa

      river

      3 strokes

      川口 kawaguchi rivermouth

      川柳 SENRYŪ comic verse

      江戸川 edogawa Edo River

      Based on pictographs of water flowing between two river banks, such as the OBI form later stylized. See also 水 42 ‘water’. SS1984:515; QX2000:175; KJ1970:631.

      Mnemonic: RIVER FLOWS BETWEEN TWO BANKS

      51

      L5

      先

      SEN, saki

      prior, precede, tip

      6 strokes

      先生 SENSEI teacher

      先月 SENGETSU last month

      指先 yubisaki fingertip

      The OBI form for 先 shows a foot on top of a person, signifying ‘walk ahead, go first’. (This is similar in principle to 見 20 ‘look’, in which the majority of OBI forms show an exaggerated eye on top of a person, thereby focussing on what the eye does, i.e. ‘see’.) This is an interpretation quite widely held (Shirakawa, Karlgren, Ogawa). Katō, however, sees the top element in some of the OBI and bronze forms differently, not as 止 143 (q.v.) but as 之 (NJK; ‘move, go’), a graph indicating movement (either by a person walking or a plant growing). In either case, Katō then takes the top element as phonetic in function with associated sense ‘die’, giving ‘those who have gone before’, and by extension ‘the past’, and ‘advance’. The majority view is perhaps the one to follow. SS1984:515; BK1957:131-3; OT1968:87; KJ1970:627; QX2000:53. As a mnemonic, suggest taking as a simplified 生 44, showing plant(s), with the ‘bending person’ element 儿 (see 41).

      Mnemonic: BEND TO GO THROUGH UNDER-GROWTH – YOU PRECEDE ME!

      52

      L4

      早

      SŌ, hayai

      early, fast

      6 strokes

      早急 SŌKYŪ immediately

      早口 hayakuchi rapid speech

      早死に hayajini early death

      Etymology uncertain. Early form Possibly adopted in Chinese at an early stage as a phonetic loan in the sense of ‘early’. Yamada takes it as ‘sun bursting out’ (see 日 66 ‘sun’), with 十 35 ‘ten’ seen as a phonetic with an associated sense of ‘open, burst out’. Sunrise came to mean ‘early’, then ‘fast’. QX2000:96,272,392; SS1984:539; OT1968:460.

      Mnemonic: SUN SHOWS TEN BUT IT’S STILL EARLY

      53

      L3

      草

      SŌ, kusa

      grass, plant

      9 strokes

      雑草 ZASSŌ weed

      草書 SŌSHO cursive script

      草地 kusaCHI grassland

      Seal late graph (Shuowen). 艹 (short form of 艸 ‘grass, plants’), and 早 52 (‘fast, early’) as phonetic to give meaning ‘acorn’ (Qiu, Katō), but borrowed early on for ‘grass, plants’. The borrowed usage soon prevailed. QX2000:266; KJ1970:427; TA1965:216-8.

      Mnemonic: GRASS GROWS FAST

      54

      L5

      足

      SOKU, ashi, tariru

      leg, foot, suffice

      7 strokes

      不足 FUSOKU insufficiency

      足首 ashikubi ankle

      足音 ashioto footsteps

      OBI Pictograph of kneecap down to foot. At this stage 足 and 正 43 were often written the same. ‘Suffice’ is loan use. SS1984:543; BK1957:313; MS1995:v2:1260-62,v1:702-03.

      Mnemonic: ROUND KNEE AND FOOT SUFFICE TO SHOW LEG

      55

      L5

      村

      SON, mura

      village

      7 strokes

      村長 SONCHŌ village head

      農村 NŌSON farming village

      村人 murabito villager(s)

      Etymology unclear. Seems a late graph, not in Shuowen dictionary of ca.100AD. Ogawa treats it as variant of CO graph 杶 ‘lacquer tree’ which was used phonetically in the sense of ‘village’ in place of another graph for ’village’, 邨, which may be taken provisionally as阝 (邑) ‘settlement, village’ (see 376), and 屯 1806 ‘accumulate, stay’ as semantic and phonetic. OT1968:490-91; KJ1985:311. Use 寸 920 ‘measure’ and 木 73 ‘tree’ for mnemonic.

      Mnemonic: MEASURE TREES TO BUILD A VILLAGE

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