480531170

664
L3
確
KAKU,
tashika/kameru
firm, ascertain
15 strokes
SEIKAKUprecise
KAKUNINconfirmation
KAKUJITSUreliable
Seal ; late graph (post-Shuowen). Has 47
‘stone’, and 隺 (CO ‘fly high; high’) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘hard’, to give ‘hard
stone’, later just ‘hard’ (Katō, Yamada, Ogawa).
Shirakawa explains link between ‘fly high’ and
‘hard’ by 隺 showing a bird ( 324) trying to fly
higher but firmly confined, representing something
‘hard’. Tōdō sees the bird as a crane, the
NJK graph for which is ( 隺 , with 190 ‘bird’).
SS1984:105,108; KJ1970:195-6; YK1976:97;
OT1968:714; TA1965:265. Suggest as ‘strange’
roof.
Mnemonic: ASCERTAIN THAT BIRD IS UNDER
A STRANGE BUT FIRM ROOF
665
L3
額
GAKU, hitai
sum, forehead, frame,
plaque
18 strokes
KINGAKUsum of money
GAKUMENface value
hitaigiwahairline
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 103 ‘head’,
and 270 (‘visitor’) or alternatively (‘each’
462) – both having similar pronunciation at that
time – as a phonetic with an associated sense
‘shave off the head hair’, to indicate that part of
the face framed by the borders of the hair when
shaved, i.e. ‘forehead’ (Katō, Yamada). Normally
one would not associate shaving with the
forehead, but in ancient China (and in various
periods in Japanese history also), the hairline
was shaved so as to move hair further up the
forehead, and /or trimming it at the sides, leaving
a ‘desirable/fashionable’ framing of the forehead.
Alternatively there is an interpretation of
the phonetic element as having an associated
sense of ‘wide, broad’, to denote the broad part
of the face, again giving the meaning ‘forehead’
(Ogawa). ‘Frame’ is an extended sense related
to the borders of the hairline, and ‘plaque’ may
represent a further extension, whereas ‘amount
/sum’ appears to be a loan usage. KJ1970:192;
YK1976:98; OT1968:1106; AS2007:253,334.
Mnemonic: EACH VISITOR’S FOREHEAD
LOOKS LIKE A FRAMED PLAQUE
666
L3
刊
KAN
publish, engrave
5 strokes
KANKŌpublication
NIKKANdaily issue
HAKKANbook launch
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has ()
198 ‘knife, blade, cut, sword’, and 840 as
phonetic with an associated sense of ‘dig out,
carve out’ (Katō, Yamada), or ‘cut and make
level’ (Tōdō, Ogawa). (Originally, depicted a
forked thrusting weapon with a hand-guard;
but owing to its convenient simplicity it has
over the centuries been borrowed extensively.
Its modern meaning is ‘dry’.) The process of
engraving woodblocks to produce texts and
illustrated material on a large scale that was
developed during the first millennium AD in
China subsequently led to the meaning ‘print,
publish’. YK1976:100; KJ1970:204; TA1965:601-
06; OT1968:111; AS2007:331. As a mnemonic
we suggest taking in its current meaning of
‘dry’, with as ‘sword’.
Mnemonic: PUBLISH BOOK ON HOW TO KEEP
ENGRAVED SWORD DRY
216 The 185 Fifth Grade Characters