#buranko

@soxrox12​ sent me an ask related to my post celebrating 3,000 followers! : “Congrats on 3k followers, your blog is absolutely amazing!! Could you recommend a Kanji based on my studyblr, @hannahsox-studies?“

I would love to recommend you a kanji! In fact, I got a little bit carried away, and am going to recommend you several unusual kanji!

Ok, here come six different kanji, only one or possibly two of which you might ever actually come across:

I was really excited to see that you’re homeschooled and self-studying Japanese, and around the same age I was when I started studying! So I tried looking for words that would reflect that excitement, and couldn’t quite find the perfect one. But I did find this one, which I don’t recall seeing before:

唆 - kunyomi: soso.ru, sosonoka.su  onyomi: sa     meaning: tempt, seduce, instigate, promote

My first though was of the give name 俊輔 (Shunsuke), although that kanji is a little different- it means “sagacious, genius, excellence”, which would have also been a good choice. 

It seems like most of the words that use 唆 fit pretty well with the English word ‘instigate’.  

示唆　shisa　“suggestion; hint; implication“

示唆的　shisateki　“suggestive; pregnant (e.g. pregnant pause)”

教唆　kyousa　“1. instigation ​2. incitement  ​ Law, etc. term“

教唆煽動　kyousa-sendou　“instigation and abetment”  (the third kanji means ‘fan’, so like ‘fanning the flames of wrongdoing’ or something)

and the verbs

唆す　sosonokasu　“to instigate; to tempt; to entice; to incite​“  and

唆る　sosoru　“to excite; to incite; to stimulate; to arouse; to tempt; to stir up”

(not quite sure what the difference is, but I feel like that’s for a different post)

see also: 悪事を唆す　akuji wo sosonokasu　“to entice a person to do something wrong” Anyway, that didn’t quite cover what I wanted it to from looking at your blog. I wanted a kanji with the fire radical 火 in it, so I found a whole bunch of interesting ones that aren’t used very much, just for fun!

炙　kun: abu.ru  on: sha, seki   meaning:  roast, broil, toast, cauterize

炙る　aburu　“1. to warm (e.g. one's hands over a fire); to dry　2. to toast; to grill; to broil; to roast; to scorch”

This one you might actually see, especially at a restaurant or sushi place that serves fish. 

See the bottom row- lightly cooked salmon  (Photo from here)

The kanji is also used in one more way:

炙り出す　aburidasu　“1. to bring into the open; to reveal; to uncover (e.g. evidence); to bring to light”　although you might just see it as あぶり出す

see also: 炙り出し　aburidashi　“invisible writing revealed by applying heat; writing done in invisible ink”

炬　kun: (none)  on: ko, kyo　meaning: torch, signal fire

炬燵　kotatsu　“kotatsu; table over an electric heater (orig. a charcoal brazier in a floor well) with a hanging quilt that retains heat”

As you’ll see in the image below, ‘kotatsu’ is almost always written in hiragana.

Photo from Rakuten (click link for more pictures of kotatsus)

What they don’t tell you about kotatsu is that old-style homes in Japan often have a depression in the floor that you put the kotatsu over, so you can let your legs hang down when you sit at them!   *They also don’t tell you that your apartment might have a trapdoor that could be used as a vegetable cellar and/or co-opted into a kotatsu area...

See also: こたつむり　“someone who curls up under a kotatsu all winter; kotatsu bug; kotatsu snail​“  A play off the word for snail, ‘katatsumuri’ !!

萩　kun: hagi　on: shuu　meaning: bush clover

萩　hagi　1. bush clover; Japanese clover (any flowering plant of genus Lespedeza)​　2. dark red exterior with blue interior (color combination worn in autumn) 　　(That second definition might also be getting its own post)

I might be a little biased because 萩 (Hagi) is also the name of a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where my host sister from my exchange later went to get her nursing degree. The city is also famous for pottery. 

お萩　ohagi　rice ball coated with sweetened red beans, soybean flour or sesame　　https://www.thespruceeats.com/ohagi-botamochi-2031326

鍬　kun: kuwa, suki　on: shou, shuu　meaning: hoe with long blade at acute angle

鍬　kuwa　hoe (tool)

That’s cool, but more importantly...

鍬形虫 / クワガタ(虫)　kuwagata(mushi)　stag beetle

similar to a 甲虫/カブトムシ　kabutomushi　rhinoceros beetle, but arguably the kuwagata is more common. 

Kuwagata on the left, kabutomushi on the right. Photo from here.

Ok, finally time for the last kanji with 火 in it! Last but not least!

鞦　kun: furan.ni , shirigai　on: shuu　meaning: swing

(This is just altogether a very strange kanji! But the radicals mean ‘leather’, ‘two-branch tree’, and ‘fire’, so I can kind of see where they got it from.)

鞦　shirigai　crupper　(I had no idea what a crupper is; apparently it’s “a leather strap fastened to the saddle of a harness and looping under the tail of a horse to prevent the harness from slipping forward”)

鞦韆　buranko　swing; trapeze　Like the kind on playgrounds. I will GUARANTEE you that you will never see this word in kanji, it’s always ブランコ. The word ‘buranko’ probably comes from ぶらぶら burabura, which means “dangling heavily; swaying to and fro; swinging“.  Take the ‘bura’, add on a ‘ko’ meaning ‘small thing that does the thing’, and voila, you get a word for swing!  (Btw, the second kanji appears to mean ‘swing’ as well, but doesn’t show up in any other words on jisho.org) Well, that got very long, but these were really interesting kanji to investigate! I hoped you enjoyed and/or learned something, and I wish you the best with your Japanese studies! 

Karakuriko, Kigurumiko and Buranko from the Kondansha TV picture books

Buranko is totally the wrong colour here but the pink colour scheme is adorable :)c