480531170

150
L4
自
JI, SHI, mizukara
self
6 strokes
JIBUNoneself
SHIZENNature
JISHINself-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 76
‘eye’.
Mnemonic: NOSE JUST A STROKE AWAY
FROM THE EYE, SYMBOLISING SELF
151
時
JI, toki
‘move’, and 66 ‘sun, day’, to give a sense
time, hour
‘movement of the sun’, and then – by extension
L5
10 strokes
– ‘season, time’. Ogawa interprets instead as
and 149 (in later forms) as phonetic with
JIDAIera, period
associated meaning ‘go’. Came to be used for
NIJItwo o’clock
‘hour’ when the Twelve Branches were adopted
tokidokisometimes
to refer to the way a 24-hour day was divided
up into twelve segments each of two hours.
As Mizukami and Ma note, OBI forms such as
MS1995:v1:618-20; MR2007:352; SS1984:382;
have ‘move, go’ (NJK graph taken either
AS2007:463, 613; OT1968:468. Suggest 149
as foot moving away from boundary line or as
‘temple’ as a mnemonic.
vegetation sprouting up out of ground; see too
149), here as semantic and phonetic meaning Mnemonic: TELL TIME BY SUN ON TEMPLE
152
室
SHITSU, muro
room, house
L4
9 strokes
SHITSUNAIindoors
KYŌSHITSUclassroom
Muromachiplace/period name
OBI forms such as depict ‘roof/building’
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 : 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
社
SHA, yashiro
‘altar’ added in its short form . Some bronze
shrine, company forms also have 73 ‘tree’ as an additional
L5
7 strokes
component, and this is taken as reflecting the
frequent custom of planting trees on these sacred
SHAKAIsociety
sites. Mizukami defines the original mean-
KAISHAcompany, firm
ing of this graph as ‘a place to revere where the
SHAKŌSEIsociability
earth deity is, who has the wondrous power to
emit various things from within the earth’, and
At the OBI stage, written simply with a graph
hence ‘shrine’. MS1995:v2:938-40; SS1984:391;
to represent a mound of earth or the
OT1968:718.
earth deity (modern 64 ‘ground’). Eventually
in bronze inscriptions written with the Mnemonic: GROUND IS A SHRINE
determinative 723 ‘show’ in original sense
The 160 Second Grade Characters 83