Latham's 1998 Guide to Japanese Baseball...

Kanji Lesson # 2:
More simple characters

Though slightly less common than those characters in the previous lesson, you'll probably see the kanji (listed below) in about ten percent of Japanese family names.

	roots; often used in names of Kagoshima residents
	roots, book; moto often used for names; hon means book
	tree
	big
	small
	old; furu appears more often in names of players than ko
	luck
	dirt; this character also used to represent saturday
	right, justice; sho often used for family, masa for given names
	three

Moto/hon is one of the most common kanji. It's a symbol for a tree with roots. Since they are widely considered the root of knowledge, hon means "book." So if you walk down a Tokyo street and see this kanji on a sign, there's a very good chance you are passing a "honya" (bookstore). In names, however, this character is usually read as "moto."

O/dai/tai represents a man that is standing with his arms stretched wide. This symbol is often means "adult," while ko (small) can be used to identify "child." These character are widely used at ballpark ticket booths.

Since sho/masa is written with five lines, it is often used to count in the same way that North Americans draw four vertical lines intersected by a diagonal slash to count to five.

Go to Lesson 3

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