480531170

988
L3
枚
MAI
counter (for flat items)
8 strokes
ICHIMAIone sheet
NIMAIjitaduplicity
NIMAIgaibivalve
OBI ; bronze ; seal . Has 73 ‘wood,
tree’, and () 112 ‘strike’ (originally, pictograph
of hand holding wooden whip or similar),
typically taken as meaning ‘whip for striking
horse’ (Katō, Yamada, Mizukami), which is the
explanation given in Shuowen. In this analysis,
989
L1
幕
13
MAKU, BAKU
curtain, tent,
act in drama
strokes
TENMAKUcurtain, tent
KAIMAKUopening scene
BAKUFUShogunate
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 1232
‘cloth’, and 809 (originally depicted sun setting
amongst trees or vegetation) as phonetic
990
L1
密
MITSU, hisoka
dense, secret
11 strokes
MITSUDOdensity
MITSUYUsmuggling
MENMITSU nadetailed
Bronze ; seal . Has 26 ‘mountain, hill’,
and 宓 (CO, itself having 30 ‘roof, dwelling’,
with 597 [modern meaning ‘necessarily’])
991
L1
盟
MEI
alliance, pledge
13 strokes
RENMEIfederation
DŌMEIalliance
KAMEIaffiliation
OBI ; bronze ; seal . Early forms have
300 ‘dish, bowl’ or (rarely) 288 ‘blood’,
beneath 囧 (‘lattice window, opening’ [originally
a pictograph]) or 朙 / 228 (‘bright,
the semantic range of is thought to have
extended from being a counter for horse whips
to serve as a counter for various other objects
too. Shirakawa notes that the bronze forms for
have not ‘whip’ but ‘ax’, and on this basis he
takes the original sense as ‘wood cut with an
ax’. Flat, thin pieces of wood were then denoted
using this graph, and this gave a basis for using
it as a counter for other objects of similar shape.
YK1976:461-2; KJ1970:761; MS1995:v1:656-7;
SS1984:810.
Mnemonic: HAND HOLDS THIN FLAT
WOODEN STICK FOR COUNTING
with associated sense ‘cover’, giving ‘cloth to
cover’, and by extension ‘curtain; tent’. The
military government (Shogunate 1192-1867)
was known as the ‘tent government’ (
Bakufu, referring initially to a large tent acting
as field HQ), and so Shogunate/Bakufu became
an associated meaning for . YK1976:462;
OT1968:319; KJ1970:774-5. Suggest taking
as its original meaning ‘sunset’.
Mnemonic: DRAMATIC VIEW OF SUNSET
THROUGH CLOTH CURTAIN OF TENT
as phonetic with associated sense taken
as i) ‘silent’, giving ‘quiet house’ [Katō], or
as ii) ‘hemmed in’, giving ‘tightly packed’
[Yamada, Tōdō]), giving ‘dense mountains’.
By extension, ‘deep inside’, and then ‘secret’.
KJ1970:806-9; YK1976:464-5; TA1965:769;
MS1995:v1:378-9,368-9.
Mnemonic: A DWELLING IN DENSE
MOUNTAINS IS NECESSARILY SECRET
clear’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘drink,
sip’, giving ‘drink blood from bowl’. In ancient
China, when nobles met to make an agreement
they would drink blood taken from a
sacrificial animal as a pledge ritual. ‘Pledge,
alliance’ are extended meanings. YK1976:469;
MS1995:v2:1156-9,900-01; KJ1970:838-9;
OT1968:692; SS1984:818-9,227.
Mnemonic: BRIGHT ALLIANCE PLEDGED
OVER BOWL – OF BLOOD?
302 The 181 Sixth Grade Characters