480531170

1391
咲
saku
bloom, blossom
L2
9 strokes
SHIKIzakiperennial
osozakilate blooming
sakinokoru stay in bloom
Late, post-Shuowen graph; traditional .
Initially written 芺 , a graph originally meaning
‘thistle’; later sometimes written , and
borrowed for convenience to write a different
word that at an earlier stage of Chinese
was of similar pronunciation and meant ‘act
coquettishly’, and by extension ‘laugh’ (see
537). Later, 22 ‘mouth’ was added as a
determinative to distinguish in writing when
‘laugh’ was intended and not ‘thistle’. The
top element, 58 ‘bamboo’, was further
changed (perhaps in error) resulting in the
shape , or in printed texts (some having
slightly different forms) often or typically to
. ‘Bloom’ seems the dominant Japanese usage
for , though ‘laugh’ is retained in Chinese.
KJ1970:85-6; YK1976:272; OT1968:181;
FC1977:161-2. Take as ‘heaven’ 62, and
70 as ‘open’.
Mnemonic: HEAVENLY FLOWERS OPEN
MOUTHS TO BLOSSOM FORTH
1392
刹
SATSU, SETSU
temple
L1
8 strokes
MEISATSUfamed temple
SETSUNAmoment, instant
SETSUNATEKI fleeting
Late, post-Shuowen graph. Etymology
uncertain. Has 198 ‘knife’, and