480531170

1252
熊
kuma, YŪ
bear
L1
14 strokes
kumadegarden rake
akagumabrown bear
Kumamotoplace name
OBI ; bronze ; seal . From seal form
onwards has 8 ‘fire’ (in variant shape ),
and 787 (‘can, ability’), typically taken as
phonetic with associated sense ‘flames burn
brightly’, thus giving ‘light of fire, flames burn
brightly’. In this view, ‘bear’ is a loan usage
of . An alternative interpretation of the
meaning (noted by Mizukami), perhaps on
the basis of some of the OBI and bronze occurrences,
is ‘fat of wild animals which burns
long’, with ‘bear’ as an extended sense on the
basis that the bear came to be thought of
as being the spirit of the flames. Shirakawa
takes a less certain stance, and regards the
etymology of as difficult to make clear (he
alone considers 787 as originally not “bear”
but “aquatic insect”). It should be noted that
there are indeed bears in Japan, now almost
entirely confined to the northern island of
Hokkaidō, and there are still on occasion bear
attacks. The indigenous people of Hokkaidō,
the Ainu, have traditionally worshipped the
bear, and until relatively recently their main
festival involved a bear sacrifice. The sacrificial
element has now ceased. Finally, note that
787 itself would have been the original
way of writing . KJ1970:35-6; OT1968:625;
MS1995:v2:806-7,1074-5.
Mnemonic: DOES A BEAR HAVE THE ABILITY
TO MAKE FIRE?
1253
L1
1254
L1
繰
kuru, SŌ
reel, turn
19 strokes
kuriitosilk reeling
kurikosutransfer
kurikaesurepeat
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 29
‘thread’, and CO 喿 as phonetic with associated
sense in one view as ‘navy blue’, thus
‘navy silk’ (Ogawa, Shirakawa), then through
勲
KUN
merit
15 strokes
KUNSHŌmedal
SHUKUNgreat merit
KUN’Iorder of merit
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen); traditional form
has in top left. Has 78 ‘strength/effort’,
and NJK (‘smolder’; orig signified bouquet
of fragrant herbs smoldering over fire 8
[Ogawa], or smoke rising through upper vent
[Mizukami]) as phonetic with associated sense
taken as i] ‘much/many’ (Katō), or ii] ‘hang
extension or loan ‘reel thread’. Tōdō takes extended
sense as ‘draw from surface’, thus ‘draw
off thread from cocoon surface’. Note: 喿 has
three mouths 22, i.e. ‘many mouths’, with
73 ‘tree’, giving ‘birds settle and sing noisily in
tree’, then generalized to ‘noisy’. OT1968:793;
SS1984:550; TA1965:258-60; MS1995:v1:242-3.
Suggest 喿 as three wooden boxes.
Mnemonic: PUT REELED THREADS INTO
THREE WOODEN BOXES
heavy’, i.e. be in abundance (Tōdō explains this
as being as if human endeavor were to ‘hang
heavy’ like incense-laden smoke emanating
from a bouquet of fragrant herbs); either analysis
gives same overall sense of ‘much effort’.
Ogawa treats as serving not as semantic
in the graph but as phonetic with associated
sense ‘gather’ or ‘serve’, which he takes as
giving the overall sense ‘merit in govt, merit’.
KJ1970:344; TA1965:625,723-5; OT1968:130;
MS1995:v2:806-8. Take as 326 ‘heavy’.
Mnemonic: BURN ONESELF OUT WITH HEAVY
EFFORT – GREAT MERIT
372 The Remaining 1130 Characters