skull, Schuessler a (pale) acorn, and Katō a pale thumbnail. Karlgren takes it as a phallus, but this seems to overlook the extended vertical line at the top in some forms, even curled in some. Katō points out that the thumb indicated a hundred in ancient China, with similar pronunciation (see 71). Whatever the original meaning of 白, ‘white’ may represent a phonetic loan use, though it is difficult to rule this out as a possible extended sense. SS1984:687-8; KJ1970:960-1; BK1957:206-7; AS2007:153-4. We suggest taking the character as punning on ‘stroke’ and ‘sun’ 日 66 for a mnemonic.
Mnemonic: SUNSTROKE LEAVES YOU WHITE!?
70
L5
八
HACHI, ya-
eight
2 strokes
八月 HACHIGATSU August
八百屋 yaoya* greengrocer
八日 yōka* eighth day
All early forms, such as depict splitting/dividing, the graph for this then being borrowed phonetically to represent the word for ‘eight’. It still features as an element to indicate splitting and by extension ‘disperse, away, out’. TA1965:647-9; SS1984:694; OT1968:94.
Mnemonic: EIGHT IS EASILY DIVIDED
71
L5
百
HYAKU
hundred
6 strokes
百倍 HYAKUBAI hundred-fold
百姓 HYAKUSHŌ farmer
百貨店 HYAKKATEN dept store
Most OBI and bronze forms such as comprise a horizontal stroke to indicate one unit on top of a graph for 白 69 ‘white’. The word for ‘hundred’ in early Chinese was close in pronunciation to that for ‘white’, the graph for which represents a thumb (Katō) or acorn (Schuessler). SS1984:723-4; TS2010:8; AS2007:153-4; KJ1985:425.
Mnemonic: ONE WHITE THUMBNAIL IS WORTH A HUNDRED ACORNS
72
L4
文
BUN, MON, fumi
writing, text
4 strokes
文学 BUNGAKU literature
文字 MO(N)JI character
恋文 koibumi love-letter
OBI and bronze forms Etymology disputed. These forms are taken by Shirakawa and Karlgren as person with tattoos, while Ogawa and Katō take them as a figure wearing garment with neck. ‘Pattern, writing, text’ may be seen as extended senses if Karlgren and Shirakawa are followed. SS1984:759; BK1957:130-1; OT1968:445; KJ1970:218-20.
Mnemonic: A CROSS IS THE LOWEST FORM OF WRITING: TRY TO TOP IT
73
L5
木
BOKU, MOKU, ki, ko
tree, wood
4 strokes
木曜日 MOKUYŌbi Thursday
木目 kime grain, texture
木立 kodachi* grove
Based on a pictograph of a tree MR2007:333; SS1984:804; QX2000:54; KJ1970:955.
Mnemonic: TREE WITH SWEEPING BRANCHES – LOOKS LIKE GOOD WOOD
74
L5
本
HON, moto
root, book, true, main, this, cylinder-counter
5 strokes
日本 NIHON/NIPPON Japan
本屋 HONya bookshop
本社 HONSHA this/head office
Based on pictograph of tree with roots the latter indicated later by the simple addition of a stroke near the base, to show root or stem below ground level. Norman observes – with reference to Chinese – that it “is not entirely clear how a word originally meaning ‘root’ could come to be used as a measure for books”, but this may be explained as an extended meaning ‘stem’, in that traditionally in China and Japan books were in cylindrical rolls, i.e., a stem-like shape. In China, the cylindrical roll for books started to change to a folded-page format from about the 9th century AD. Note also that in English there is a close link between trees and books: ‘book’, ‘bark’, ‘beech’, and ‘birch’, the bark once having been used for writing on. SS1984:807; QX2000:183; JN1988:116; KJ1970:866; TT1962:153.
Mnemonic: TREE WITH ONE MAIN ROOT BELOW GROUND
75
L5
名
MEI, MYŌ, na
name, fame
6 strokes
有名 YŪMEI famous
名字 MYŌJI surname
名前 namae name
Various interpretations. Early form May well be a combination of /口 22 ‘mouth, say’, and 夕 46 ‘crescent moon’ – used here as substitute for another graph meaning ‘shout, call out’ (Mizukami, Yamada). Shirakawa, however, takes the earliest forms (bronze) as depicting meat over a ritual vessel, used in the ancient naming ceremony for an infant when it reached three months. If we follow Shirakawa, most OBI and bronze occurrences of 口 represent not ‘mouth’ but specifically ‘prayer receptacle’, but this is very much a minority view. MS1995:v1:214-5; YK1976:467; SS1984:816-7.
Mnemonic: MOUTH CALLS FAMOUS NAME UNDER A CRESCENT
skull, Schuessler a (pale) acorn, and Katō a pale thumbnail. Karlgren takes it as a phallus, but this seems to overlook the extended vertical line at the top in some forms, even curled in some. Katō points out that the thumb indicated a hundred in ancient China, with similar pronunciation (see 71). Whatever the original meaning of 白, ‘white’ may represent a phonetic loan use, though it is difficult to rule this out as a possible extended sense. SS1984:687-8; KJ1970:960-1; BK1957:206-7; AS2007:153-4. We suggest taking the character as punning on ‘stroke’ and ‘sun’ 日 66 for a mnemonic.
