Kanji Lesson 9

好 (コウ、この.む、す.き)

Fond, Pleasing, Like

Consist of Woman (女) and Child (子). Women in general have a fondness for children.

• 大好き (だいすき) Like (something) very much

百 (ヒャク, ビャク)

Hundred

Consist of White (白) and One (一). Among the many celebrations that the Japanese people have, there's one that celebrates one's longevity, which is called "Ga no Iwai". Ga no Iwai is celebrated several time during one's life, starting from the age 60 (called Kanreki), and subsequently at 70, 77, 80, 88, 90, and the last one at the age 99 (called Hakuju).　In each celebration, the person being celebrated is wearing clothing with specific color, with Red being the color of Kanreki, and White being the color of Hakuju. If you add one (一) more year to the celebration of Hakuju (99th birthday, where they wear white (白) clothing), you'll get one hundred (百).

• 二百 (にひゃく) Two Hundred

千 (セン, ち)

Thousand

By angela7dreams (Flickr)
CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture of a crane with open wings. In Japanese mythology, the crane is considered a holy creature that can live up to a thousand years. Furthermore, it's also believed that if someone makes a thousand origami cranes (which is called Senbazuru), his/her wish will come true. Please remember though, that the meaning of 千 has nothing to do with the crane, it's associated with the crane in this lesson for mnemonic purpose. As a matter of fact, the combination of this kanji with the kanji for bird (鳥) will create the word 千鳥 (ちどり), which means "Plover" (bird).

• 三千 (さんぜん) Three Thousand

生 (セイ、い.きる、う.む)

By Drift Words (Flickr)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Life, Birth

Picture of a seedling that starts branching and growing leaves above the soil (土).

• 学生 (がくせい) Student
• 人生 (じんせい) Human life

草 (ソウ、くさ)

By ARC (Flickr)
CC BY 2.0

Grass

Consist of grass/plant radical and Early (早). In their early development stage (seedling), plants generally have the appearance of grasses, where they have a small size, green leaves, and an inconspicuous stem.

田 (デン、た)

Rice Field

By Jungle_Boy (Flickr)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Picture of the banks in a rice field.

• 山田 (やまだ) Yamada (person's name)
• 田中 (たなか) Tanaka (person's name)