by LEFTERIS KAFATOS
Hokubei Mainichi

Labor Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pay a kanji tribute to everyone’s favorite activity: Work! So this week’s kanji are “labor” (労, ro); “weight” (重, omoi); “strength” (力, chikara); and “move” (動, ugoki).

Labor

Today’s kanji, (労, ro), means “work/labor” and its main radical will be seen in this Friday’s kanji, “strength/power” (力, chikara). Fittingly enough, since it takes strength to work. Incidentally, the top portion of this kanji used to be two “fires” (火火) but it was simplified to the katanaka character for tsu (ツ).

The U.S. holiday “Labor Day” is 労働者の日 (Rodosha no Hi), literally translated as “Laborer’s Day.” The Japanese equivalent is 勤労感謝の日 (Kinro Kansha no Hi) and this is observed in Japan in late November.

Also, there is an oft-used phrase in Japanese, go kuro sama desu (ご苦労様です). Like many other phrases, this is difficult to translate into English because of the cultural context. It is often used by bosses and higher-ups when one of their subordinates has completed a task or a hard day’s work. This cannot be used by a subordinate to someone higher on the totem pole. A subordinate would reply with the politer equivalent, o tsukare sama desu (お疲れ様です).

Weight and Importance

Thursday’s kanji will be “weight” (重, omoi) and its main radical is “village” (里, sato), which can also have the connotation of “hometown.” Perhaps this kanji can be remembered as, “The uncertain fate of my hometown (里) is weighing heavily (重) on me.”

This kanji 重 also means “to overlap” or “fold something over.” The more things are folded over, the heavier they become.

Strength, Power and Force

Friday’s kanji, “strength” (力, chikara), looks like the katakana for ka (カ). This is a very important kanji and is often read as riki. In Japanese video games, especially the fighting-type games, if the main character is named Riki, you can bet this is the kanji they’re using.

An interesting linguistic note here: 力 also parented the birth of an English word, “rickshaw.” A rickshaw is usually defined as a human-powered, two-wheeled wagon and is seen mainly in Asian countries. The word “rickshaw” in Japanese is written as 人力車 (jin riki sha), literally “person” (人) “powered” (力) “car” (車). The phonetic similarity is also obvious (riki-sha).

Movement and Motion

Saturday’s kanji will be “move” (動, ugoki), which comprises “weight” (重) and “power” (力). This is also logical, since movement (動) requires strength (力) to move weight (重).

Next week we will build upon this further with the kanji for “to work” (働く, hataraku).

Until then, enjoy the shortened week!

Send questions or comments to lkafatos@hokubei.com.