takes bronze forms to combine ‘hand’ 920 寸 orig. ‘hand’, with 止 143 ‘stop’, latter acting as phonetic with associated sense ‘control’; Katō broadly agrees. Ogawa identifies same two elements as ‘keep in the hand’. Instead of 止, Tōdō takes top element as 之 (NJK; ‘move, go’, see 151). Note some OBI and bronze forms of 止 and 之 are very similar (之 might originally have depicted foot, like 止); Karlgren asserts 止 ‘is mostly used in the bone and the bronze inscriptions as loan for the homophonous 之 in its various meanings’ (Schuessler has these two graphs as near-homophones, not complete homophones in Late Han times). Originally meaning ‘control with hand’, in Han times 寺 acquired the sense of ‘place to control/administer’, and also – after transmission of Buddhism to China c.1st century A.D. – the more specialized sense of ‘Buddhist temple’. By clerical script stage upper element had changed to 土. MS1995:v1:392-3,18-19; KJ1970:480; OT1968:285; BK1957:253-4; AS2007:613; SK1984:230. Take as 土 64 ‘ground’ and 寸 920 ‘hand’.
Mnemonic: HAND OFFERS GROUND TO TEMPLE
150
L4
自
JI, SHI, mizukara
self
6 strokes
自分 JIBUN oneself
自然 SHIZEN Nature
自信 JISHIN self-confidence
Based on pictograph of nose . Extended meaning ‘self’ reflects custom of Chinese people visually referring to themselves by pointing to the nose, whereas Western people typically point at the chest. MR2007:287-8; MS1995:v2:1086-88; KJ1970:482-3. Use 目 76 ‘eye’.
Mnemonic: NOSE JUST A STROKE AWAY FROM THE EYE, SYMBOLISING SELF
151
L5
時
JI, toki
time, hour
10 strokes
時代 JIDAI era, period
二時 NIJI two o’clock
時々 tokidoki sometimes
As Mizukami and Ma note, OBI forms such as have 之 ‘move, go’ (NJK graph taken either as foot moving away from boundary line or as vegetation sprouting up out of ground; see too 149), here as semantic and phonetic meaning ‘move’, and 日 66 ‘sun, day’, to give a sense ‘movement of the sun’, and then – by extension – ‘season, time’. Ogawa interprets instead as 日 and 寺 149 (in later forms) as phonetic with associated meaning ‘go’. Came to be used for ‘hour’ when the Twelve Branches were adopted to refer to the way a 24-hour day was divided up into twelve segments each of two hours. MS1995:v1:618-20; MR2007:352; SS1984:382; AS2007:463, 613; OT1968:468. Suggest 寺 149 ‘temple’ as a mnemonic.
Mnemonic: TELL TIME BY SUN ON TEMPLE
152
L4
室
SHITSU, muro
room, house
9 strokes
室内 SHITSUNAI indoors
教室 KYŌSHITSU classroom
室町 Muromachi place/period name
OBI forms such as depict ‘roof/building’ 宀 30, under which there is a graph interpreted as an arrow arriving at its target (or at least somewhere), to give the sense of ‘arrive, reach’ (modern 至: see 886 ‘reach’), with an overall extended meaning ‘place to shelter’, and thus ‘room’. MS1995: v1:370-01; SS1984:387; OT1968:277.
Mnemonic: ARROW REACHES ROOF OF ROOM
153
L5
社
SHA, yashiro
shrine, company
7 strokes
社会 SHAKAI society
会社 KAISHA company, firm
社交性 SHAKŌSEI sociability
At the OBI stage, written simply with a graph to represent a mound of earth or the earth deity (modern 土 64 ‘ground’). Eventually in bronze inscriptions written with the determinative 示 723 ‘show’ in original sense ‘altar’ added in its short form 礻. Some bronze forms also have 木 73 ‘tree’ as an additional component, and this is taken as reflecting the frequent custom of planting trees on these sacred sites. Mizukami defines the original meaning of this graph as ‘a place to revere where the earth deity is, who has the wondrous power to emit various things from within the earth’, and hence ‘shrine’. MS1995:v2:938-40; SS1984:391; OT1968:718.
Mnemonic: GROUND IS A SHRINE
154
L4
弱
JAKU, yowai/meru
weak
10 strokes
弱点 JAKUTEN weak point
弱み yowami weakness
弱虫 yowamushi weakling
Late occurrence (Shuowen). The early form (seal script) is made up of two bows each with the three-stroke ‘embellishment’ 彡 115, and this leads Shirakawa to interpret the graph as depicting two ceremonial bows, i.e. ones not for use in warfare and therefore not robust, giving the sense of ‘weak’. Ogawa takes the early graph as representing a bow being bent on a frame so it could flex, then embellished, and by extension ‘weak’. SS1984:398; OT1968:340. We suggest taking as double ‘ice determinative’ 冫 401.
takes bronze forms 