480531170

294
向
KŌ, muku/keru/kau/kō
turn, face, beyond
L3
6 strokes
KŌJŌimprovement
mukōgawaopposite side
maemukiforward-looking
OBI shows a dwelling with a window,
apparently north-facing. Mizukami, Ma and
Yamada take ‘face toward’ or ‘direction’ as later
meanings; Qiu explores this topic in detail. Katō
295
L3
幸
KŌ, saiwai, sachi,
shiawase
happiness, luck
8 strokes
KŌUN good fortune
FUKŌ misery, bad luck
saiwainifortunately
Seal . Late graph (Shuowen). Consists of i] ,
showing a figure with head bent down, meaning
‘delicate, beautiful’, but borrowed in early
Chinese for similar-sounding word meaning
‘calamity’ (Mizukami), ‘premature death’ (Katō),
with ii] 屰 ‘inverted’ (see 675) (Ogawa), ‘avoid’
sees the graph as specifically a high window
facing north, but takes the core meaning to be
the window itself, with the meaning of ‘facing’
resulting from being used as a substitute for a
more complex NJK character (now meaning
lord) relating to facing each other at the meal
table. ‘Turn’ and ‘beyond’ are extended meanings.
MS1995:v1:210-11; MR2007:369; YK1976:175;
QX2000:217-8; KJ1985:102-3.
Mnemonic: TURN TO THE HOUSE WITH THE
HIGH WINDOW
(Katō), giving overall sense ‘good fortune’. The
graph elements show distortion in progression
from seal to standard script, and Qiu notes
that as part of the evolutionary process what
was originally a separate graph in seal script
for another word meaning ‘wooden handcuffs’
also ended up having the same shape in block
script as . MS1995:v1:296-8; KJ1970:402-3;
OT1968:323,300; AS2007:559-60; QX2000:190.
We suggest using 1535 meaning ‘sharp/bitter’
as a mnemonic.
Mnemonic: EXTRA SHARP STROKE BRINGS
HAPPINESS AND LUCK
296
L3
港
KŌ, minato
harbor, port
12 strokes
KŪKŌairport
NYŪKŌport entry
minatomachiport town
A late graph (Shuowen) . Has ‘water’ 42,
and (NJK, ‘streets of settlement’) as semantic
and phonetic, meaning ‘road, path’, giving
water lane for boats, and by extension ‘harbour’.
KJ1970:163; YK1976:184-5; OT1968:594.
We suggest taking the upper-right element
as 484 ‘together’, and the lower part as
866 ‘self’.
Mnemonic: FIND ONESELF TOGETHER WITH
WATER IN PORT
297
号
GŌ
number, call, sign
L3
5 strokes
BANGŌnumber
GŌREIcommand
GŌKYŪwailing
Late graph (Shuowen) . Traditional , which
has 1301 ‘tiger’, with left-side (analyses
differ): Ogawa takes as 22 ‘mouth’; ‘say’, with
丂 (‘floating waterweed’ 130 [Katō] or ‘curved
knife’ [Shirakawa]) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘howl, etc.’, while Yamada and Tōdō
take as (with same sense). Either analysis
yields overall sense ‘howl, roar like a tiger’. The
abbreviated modern form has a more generalized
sense range; ‘name, number’ are extended
meanings.’YK1976:186-7; OT1968:161;
TA1965:273-4; KJ1985:99.
Mnemonic: LOUD RISING VOICE CALLS OUT
A NUMBER
The 200 Third Grade Characters 117