480531170

2014
L2
娘
10
musume, JŌ
young woman,
daughter
strokes
komusume young girl
JŌSHIGUN Amazons
hitorimusume only daughter
A late, post-Shuowen graph, considered
to be a popular variant of 1522 (q.v.).
Consists of 37 ‘woman, female’, with
628 (‘good’) in one view having a semantic
and phonetic role, giving the original mean-
ing which varies somewhat according to
the commentator: Katō gives ‘girl’; Ogawa
gives ‘beautiful female/girl’. Schuessler gives
‘lady’ for both and 1522 (‘young lady,
daughter’, q.v.). ‘Daughter’ is an extended
sense for . Though sometimes seen as interchangeable
in Japanese usage, (1522)
has the more polite connotation of the two,
similar to the difference in English between
‘woman’ and ‘lady’. KJ1970:555; OT1968:259;
SS1984:458; AS2007:401.
Mnemonic: DAUGHTER IS A GOOD YOUNG
WOMAN – INDEED, A LADY
2015
冥
MEI, MYŌ
dark(/ness)
L1
10 strokes
MEIDOHades, realm of dead
MEIŌSEI Pluto (planet)
MYŌGA divine protection
OBI ; seal . Typically interpreted – probably
on the basis of the OBI form – as two
hands (modified in shape to in block
script [thus with the same shape as ‘six’
80]) pulling down a cover to black
something out (Gu, Mizukami, Ogawa). The
element being blacked out is represented by
a roughly square shape, taken to be either
the sun 66 (Gu, Mizukami), or an area
(Ogawa). The overall meaning of the graph in
this view is taken to be ‘dark’. Another com-
mentator arrives at the same meaning, albeit
by a different route (Katō). By way of exception,
Shirakawa takes to be originally a
pictograph depicting a cover over the face of
a deceased person, with the bottom element
representing not hands but cords used for
tying the cloth over the face. If followed, this
minority interpretation more readily leads
to ‘realm of the dead’ as an extended sense.
GY2008:1156; MS1995:v1:114-5; OT1968:102;
KJ1970:839-40; SS1984:818. We suggest taking
the elements as ‘six’ 80, as or as a ‘table’,
plus cover and ‘sun’ and/or ‘day’ 6.
Mnemonic: THE SUN HAS BEEN COVERED
FOR SIX DAYS – SUCH DARKNESS!
Or: THE SUN IS SHINING ON THE
TABLE – COVER IT TO MAKE IT DARK
2016
L1
銘
14
MEIgarabrand
BOMEI epitaph
MEICHA quality tea
MEI
inscribe, sign, name,
quality
strokes
Bronze ; seal . Consists of 16 ‘metal’,
combined with 75 ‘name’ as semantic
and phonetic, typically taken to refer to the
ancient practice of recording biographical
details of a deceased person on an artefact
such as a bronze bell or tripod vessel or
on a tombstone. Katō takes it as signifying
recording the name of the deceased on a
flag; this view is based on a passage in the
Book of Rites (one of the Five Confucian
Classics), but the graph clearly suggests the
recording was done on metal (this is not to
say that the practice of writing on a flag was
602 The Remaining 1130 Characters