(473) Kanji of BRIGHT [英作文]
■Kanji of moon
I remember I studied kanji of moon (月) in the first year of elementary school.
This kanji (月) is a picture showing a crescent moon. It was self evident. I was very impressed with this explanation at that time. I could memorize quickly how to read this kanji. And now I knew this kind of picture is called pictogram. Some
of Kanji are pictograms.
■Kanji of tree
Another pictogram of kanji is kanji of tree. Upper part shows tree’s branches and leaves. Its lower part represents its roots in the ground.
But after a while, I lost interest in what each kanji was made of, because I became very busy to memorize many kanjis. So I had to learn about 1000 kanji of elementary school just mechanically without knowing of their wonderful original stories of these letters.
But three years ago, I had a chance to study again about kanji with an elementary school boy. I’ve been helping him with his kanji homework for three years. He is a Kenyan boy studying in Japanese school. I began to study kanji again with him after a long, long interval. Now I am much more interested in the formation of kanji than my ten year old student.
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Last autumn an interesting or should I say, curious thing happened to me. I woke up at night in bed. I felt something strange, something shining above me. When I opened my eyes and looked up at the small window of my room. There was a full moon emitting light through it. I felt for the first time in my life it was bright enough in the moonlight. The moonlight really woke me up at midnight.
■House and Moon
This is exactly the same situation that kanji bright (明) expresses in its formation. How mysterious! I just learned of the real eaning of this formation of the kanji a few days before. Kanji of bright (明) consists of kanji of sun (日) and the moon. So I had believed that the sun and the moon surely make brightness much stronger. But I was wrong. The kanji of sun, in this case, means not the sun but a window. Kanji of bright (明) is a compound ideogram of two kanjis,
moon and window. And this combination expresses bright. An ideogram is also a graphic character as a pictogram but ideograms are images must be learned. Pictograms should be self-evident. I was a little bit surprised to read of this
explanation. But now I’m convinced. It is true.
■Kanji of Bright
Old kanjis show this fact. Oracle bone letters (Koukotsu moji), bronze ware letters (Kinbun) and Tensho shows kanji of sun is a window. The most mysterious thing for me was that I accidentally experienced of seeing bright full moon from my bed. I was awake at that time, it was true not a dream, seeing the full moon through my window at that night. You might say that I was dreaming of moonlight.
■Kanji of Dream
Speaking of dream, its kanji is夢. It has this element (夕) in it. And this shape (夕) is a crescent moon too. This moon symbolizes night here. And interestingly upper part of this kanji means “sheep’s sore eye”. So original meaning of this kanji is I cannot see at night, then it came to mean a dream during sleep. How interesting! Now I cannot stop exploring kanji’s world.
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