Latham's 1998 Guide to Japanese Baseball...

Kanji Lesson # 3:
More simple kanji

Though the kanji in lesson three are slightly more complicated than those we've looked at already, they appear in almost as many names.

Fortunately, most of these characters only have once pronunciation when used in names. One exception, however, is hoshi/boshi. When this kanji is the first character in a names, it is read as "hoshi"; in the second position, it's often pronounced "boshi." The same pattern is used for h/b words in the following lessons: hayashi and hashi (L4), haya (7) and hara (10).

	shrine; miya only appears as mi in Komiyama
	high
	hill
	inside
	field / meadow; can also be read ya as in yakyu (baseball)
	flat / stable/ peace
	star; if first kanji in name, character read has hoshi
	wide; same kanji used for Hiroshima city
	happiness; also used for Fukuoka city
	bell; usually used for the name suzuki

Many of the above kanji are used for city names, such as Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Nishinomiya.

The kanji no can also be read as "ya" (but usually not in names). Yakyu, the Japanese word for "baseball," uses this kanji.

Go to Lesson 4

Home -- Yakult Swallows -- Japanese Baseball -- News
See a Game -- Basic Japanese -- Surviving Tokyo