RTK Lesson 6 Flashcards
Child
子
99
This kanji is a pictograph of a child wrapped up in one of those handy cocoons that Japanese mothers fix to their backs to carry around young children who cannot get around by themselves. The first stroke is like a wee little head popping out for air; the second shows the body and legs all wrapped up; and the final stroke shows the arms sticking out to cling to the mothers neck.
*As a primitive this kanji maintains its meaning, though you might imagine a little older child, able to run and get into more mischief.
Cavity
孔
100 (Child, Fishhook)
Probably one thing that most children fear more than anything else is the dentist’s chair. Once a child has seen a dentist holding the x-rays up to the light and heard the ominous word cavity, even though it is not likely to know that the word means “hole” until it is much older, it will not be long before those two syllables get associated with the drill and that row of shiny hooks the dentist uses to torture people who are too small to fight back.
Complete
了
101
Learn this character by returning to frame 99 and the image given there. The only difference is that the “arms” have been left off (actually, only tucked inside). Thus a child with its arms wrapped into the back-sack is the picture of a job successfully completed.
Woman
女
102
You have probably seen somewhere the form of a squatting woman drawn behind this character, with two legs at the bottom, two arms (the horizontal line) and the head poking out the top. A little farfetched, until you draw the character and feel the grace and flow of three simple strokes. Remembering this Kanji is easy; being able to write it beautifully is another thing.
*The primitive meaning is that same: woman.
Fond
好
104 (Woman, Child)
The phrase “to be fond of someone” has a natural gentleness about it, and lends a tenderness to the sense of touching by giving us the related term “to fondle.” The character likens it to a woman fondling her child.
Likeness
如
104 (Woman, Mouth)
Pardon me if I revert to the venerable old Dr. Freud again, but his eye for symbolism is often helpful to appreciate things that more earthy imaginations once accepted freely but that we have learned to cover over with a veneer of etiquette. For instance, the face that things like the mouth of a cave served as natural ritual substitutes for the opening though which a woman gives birth. Hence, in order to be reborn as an adult, one may have to pass through the psychological equivalent of the womb, something that bears likeness to the opening of the woman from whom you were born.
Mama
母
105 (Woman)
Look closely and you will find the outline of the kanji for woman in it, the second stroke of which has been expanded to make space for two breasts that make her a mama. Likening the sound to a baby nursing at its mother’s breast has afforded some scholars of comparative linguistics a way to explain the presence of the same word across a wide range fo language-groups.
*As a primitive we shall add the meaning of breasts in accord with the explanation above. Take careful note of the fact that the form is altered slightly when this kanji serves as a primitive; the final two dots joining together to form a longer stroke. An example follow in the next frame (106).
Pierce
貫
106 (Mama, Shellfish)
If one is asked to think of associations for the word pierce, among the first to come to mind is that of piercing one’s ears to hold earrings, a quite primitive form of self-mutilation that has survived into the 21st century. The kanji here is read, top to bottom: mama… oyster. All you need to do is imagine piercing an ear so that it can hold a mother of pearl (actually, a mama-of-pearl) you have just wrested from an oyster.
Elder Brother
兄
107 (Mouth, Human Legs)
By now kanji like this one should “look like” something to you even though is is more of an “ideogram” than a “pictograph.” The large mouth on top and the human legs below jalmost amp off the page as a caricature of elder brother, the one with the big mouth! Or, the one who “has the say” among all children.
*As a primitive this character will take the meaning of teenager, in accord with the familiar image of the big mouth and the gangling, clumsy legs.
Curse
呪
108 (Mouth, Elder Brother)
The responsibility of bring the eldest brother is an outdated and ritualistic.They are the heir, and the one who “has the say” among the children. When all other mouths speak against the elder brother, but ultimately he has the final say, it is clearly a curse upon the family.
Overcome
克
109 (Needle, Elder Brother)
In this frame we get a chance to use the kanji we have just learned in its primitive meaning of teenager. The needle on top indicates one of the major problems confronting the teenager growing up in todays world: drugs. Many of them will fall under the shadow of the needle at some point of those tender years, but only when a whole generation rises up and decides that “We Shall Overcome” the plague, will the needle cease to hang over their heads, was it does in this character.
