480531170

1520
L1
縄
JŌ, nawa
rope, cord
15 strokes
OkinawaOkinawa
nawabaricordon, ‘patch’
JIJŌJIBAKU fall in own trap
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen); traditional
. Has 29 ‘thread’, and CO 黽 (see Note
below) as phonetic with associated sense
‘become twisted’ (Ogawa), giving ‘twisted fib-
ers’. Note: as an independent graph, 黽 means
‘frog, toad’. As the phonetic in , Shuowen
regards it as an abbreviation of NJK ‘fly’,
though this is academic, since it does serve
only as phonetic here and has no semantic
role. OT1968:792; DJ2009:v3:1071,1107;
GY2008:1353. We suggest taking the righthand
part of 1520 as two ‘days’ 66 and the
down stroke as cord/rope.
Mnemonic: THREADING ROPE TAKES TWO
DAYS
1521
L2
壌
JŌ
earth, soil
16 strokes
DOJŌearth, soil
JŌDOloamy soil
TENJŌ heaven and earth
Seal ; traditional . Has 64 ‘earth,
ground’, and (‘remove garment’; see Note
below) as phonetic with associated sense
‘soft and fertile, soft’, giving ‘soft and and
fertile soil’. Mizukami lists a proposed bronze
equivalent. Note: the seal form corresponding
to block script is made up of 444 ‘gar-
ment’, plus a phonetic with associated sense
‘remove’. Resultant overall sense ‘remove garment’
is explained in Shuowen, with reference
to a Han time edict directing the populace
to remove outer garments and work in the
fields. Abbreviation in shape of right-hand
element is standard in modern Japanese (see
e.g. 1522). MS1995:v1:280-81; KJ1970:554;
O1968:226; GY2008:1952. We suggest taking
the right-hand part as ‘six’ 80, ‘well’ 1575,
and as a variant of ‘clothing’ 444.
Mnemonic: GROUND AROUND SIX WELLS IS
CLOTHED IN RICH SOIL
1522
L1
嬢
JŌ
young lady, daughter
16 strokes
REIJŌyoung lady
AIJŌbeloved daughter
oJŌSAN young lady
Seal , a late graph (Shuowen); traditional .
Has 37 ‘woman’, and (‘remove garment’;
see 1521 Note) as phonetic with associated
sense taken in one view as ‘superior’, giving
original meaning ‘mother’, and then – through
confusion with the homophonous graph
2014 ‘young lady, daughter’ – used also for
‘daughter, girl’ (Ogawa). Katō also takes ‘high,
lofty’ as one possible associated sense, but
notes ‘take charge’ as another, again leading
to the meaning ‘mother’ (probably on the
basis of one who is in charge of a household)
and then too for ‘girl, young lady’. The
Shuowen itself explains as meaning ‘confusion’,
or alternatively ‘fat, corpulent’, and on
the basis of the latter sense Shirakawa takes
to refer to corpulent females, both mothers
and daughters. Katō, however, considers
this interpretation to be flawed. In the Tang
Dynasty, both and appear to have had
a polite connotation (‘lady’ [Schuessler]).
OT1968:263; KJ1970:554-5; DJ2009:v3:1027-8;
SS1984:460; AS2007:401. As with 1521, we
again suggest taking the right-hand part as
‘six’ 80, ‘well’ 1575, and as a variant of
‘clothing’ 444.
Mnemonic: YOUNG LADY HAS ENOUGH
CLOTHES TO FILL SIX WELLS!
The Remaining 1130 Characters 451