Wednesday, April 13, 2011

April Abril Avril Utsuki"卯月"

April! Abril! Avril!
This kanji "Utsuki"卯月
literally means "April."
The upper Kanji "U"卯 literally means "hare".
The under Kanji "tsuki" 月literally means "month".
And April is the season of cherry blossoms.
So we made this featuring cherry blossoms and hare.
The cherry blossoms are in full bloom this time of the year in Japan.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

四字熟語"four-character compounds"



Kanji phrase四字熟語
"four-character compounds"
(Yoji-Jukugo)

4 kanji mean 4 English words.
It is read from left to right.
花 flower,
鳥bird,
風wind,
月moon,


Friday, April 1, 2011

kanji 20 words." 漢字20語"

We made 2 types of Kanji T-shirts.
They are same 20 kanji words.
The kanji words are

Flower, bird, wind, moon,

Sea, mountain, river, village,

Star, night, sky, moon,

Lake, river, sea, current,

Pine, bamboo, plum, cherry

Japanese are "tategaki"vertical text.
When written vertically,
the first line comes on the right of the page and succeeding lines follow it to the left.

From top right to bottom right is
"Flower, bird, wind, moon".

And second line is
"Sea, mountain, river, village".

Third line is
"Star, night, sky, moon".

Fourth line is
"Lake, river, sea, current".

Last line is
"Pine, bamboo, plum, cherry".