strokes
部分 BUBUN part
部長 BUCHŌ head of division
部屋 heya* room
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has right-hand determinative 阝 376 (full form: 邑), ‘village, settlement’, and 咅 ‘spit’ (see 389), here as phonetic with disputed associated sense. Katō and Yamada feel sense unclear as originally 部 was a proper noun for a tribe in western China, and treat it as loan usage for ‘part, section’. Tōdō, however, includes 部 in a word-family ‘oppose; divide’, linking it to a word later written 剖 1975 ‘cut, split open’. Shirakawa also takes the sense as ‘divide’. KJ1970:759; YK1976:435; TA1965:155-8; SS1984:745-6. Suggest taking 咅 as 立 77 ‘stand’ and 口 22 ‘mouth’.
Mnemonic: STAND OPEN-MOUTHED AT PART OF THE VILLAGE ON THE RIGHT
408
L4
服
FUKU
clothes, yield, serve
8 strokes
服装 FUKUSŌ clothing
服従 FUKUJŪ submission
服部 Hattori* a surname
OBI ; seal . The OBI form (left-hand) corresponds to 舟 1450 ‘boat, hollowed-out vessel’, with , made up originally of a hand positioned typically at the back of an element representing a person kneeling submissively (Katō) but here acting as phonetic with associated sense such as ‘lie/face downwards’, or ‘adhere to something’, to give overall meaning ‘work while looking down into a vessel (boat/large container)’. Mizukami gives an additional associated sense ‘boards attached tightly to sides of a boat’, and on this basis posits the extended meaning ‘something worn close to the body, clothes’. Additionally, may be treated as also having a semantic role: if ‘hand’ is taken with the other element interpreted as ‘person kneeling submissively’, this gives the meaning ‘obey, submit’ (Ogawa, Shirakawa). MS1995:v2:1100-01; KJ1970:793-4; OT1968:481; SS1984:750. Note: The element 月 in 服, which has gone through an intermediate stage , is an altered form of 舟, and is not 月 18 ‘moon’ or the abbreviated form of 肉 209 ‘meat, flesh’, which were often confused from an early period (though useful as mnenomics). We suggest taking as a hand reaching up to clothes hoist.
Mnemonic: SERVILE HAND PUTS CLOTHES ON HOIST UNDER THE MOON
409
L3
福
FUKU
good fortune
13 strokes
幸福 KŌFUKU happiness
福引 FUKUbiki lottery
福音書 FUKUINSHO Gospels
OBI forms , . The first OBI form has 示/礻 ‘altar, deity; show’ 723, and a CO 畐 as semantic and phonetic meaning ‘(full) wine jar’ (it is a pictograph of a wine jar). The second OBI has these two elements and in addition two hands, generally taken as indicating a person receiving wine after a ritual offering it to the deities. On this basis, the overall original sense of the graph was ‘sacred/auspicious wine from a ritual to the gods’. It then underwent a change to a more generalised meaning to ‘something received from the deities’, and by extension ‘good fortune’. KJ1970:827; MS1995:v2:954-5; YK1976:438. We suggest taking the right-hand components as 一 1 ‘one/single’, 口 22 ‘mouth/entrance’, and 田 63 ‘field’.
Mnemonic: ALTAR AT SINGLE ENTRANCE TO FIELD – WHAT GOOD FORTUNE
410
L4
物
BUTSU, MOTSU, mono
thing
8 strokes
人物 JINBUTSU person
食物 SHOKUMOTSU food
食べ物 tabemono food
OBI ; seal . Has 牜(牛) 108 ‘cow’, and an NJK 勿 (originally a graph with OBI forms taken as mostly depicting fluttering streamers of different colors, but then adopted through loan usage for a word meaning ‘not’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘various’, to give overall meaning ‘cow of various colors (mottled hide)’. A generalised shift in meaning gave rise to the sense ‘things’, which according to Schuessler is already found in OBI texts. KJ1970:830-32; MS1995:v2:832-3, v1:146-8; YK1976:439-40; AS2007:520.
Mnemonic: COW WITH STREAMERS FROM ITS HORNS – WHAT A FUNNY THING
411
L3
平
HEI, BYŌ, taira, hiratai
flat, even, calm
5 strokes
平気 HEIKI calmness
平等 BYŌDŌ equality
平手 hirate palm of hand
OBI ; bronze . The bottom two strokes of the OBI form show an aquatic plant. Yamada suggests the curved shape indicates it has no roots and is just floating, and takes the three strokes above as the OBI graph for 小 38 ‘small’, to give ‘small floating plant’; at the bronze stage, the top horizontal stroke was added, probably for the flat surface of the water. ‘Flat, even’ is extended usage, and ‘calm’ a further extended sense. YK1976:443; KJ1970:167; MS1995:v1:446-7. We suggest taking the graph as a whole, i.e. as a pictograph, of evenly balanced scales.
Mnemonic: SCALES ARE FLAT AND EVEN
412
L3
返
HEN, kaesu/ru
return
7 strokes
返事 HENJI reply
返済 HENSAI repayment
仕返し shikaeshi retaliation
Bronze ; seal . Has 辶 85 ‘go, walk, move’, and 反 393 (‘oppose’) as phonetic, here with associated sense ‘return, reverse’. KJ1970:786-7; MS1995:v2:1284-5; YK1976:446.
Mnemonic: REVERSE MOVEMENT AND RETURN
413
L4
勉
BEN
