Kanji 13

Front 1

road-way

Back 1

The key word carries both the sense of a road for transit and a
way or method of doing something, but the former is better for
forming an image. The primitives read: the neck of a road.
Think of a crowded road-way where traf³c has come to a
standstill—what we commonly refer to as a “bottleneck

Front 2

guidance

Back 2

When we accept someone’s guidance, we permit ourselves to
be glued to a certain road or way of doing something, and try
to “stick” to it

Front 3

crossing

Back 3

Take the ³rst two strokes in the sense we gave them back in
frame 10, as the pictograph of a cross, and set it on a road to
create a “crossing

Front 4

swift

Back 4

Here we see a crossing in the form of a barbed ³shhook, suggesting
a swifter alternate not only to the old roundabouts but
also to the “cloverleaf ” design used on superhighways

Front 5

create

Back 5

Think of creating as making something out of nothing. Then
recall how the way of revelation laid out in the Bible begins
with the story of how God created the world out of a dark and
chaotic nothingness

Front 6

urge

Back 6

To urge someone to do something, you make the way as
appealing as possible, perhaps even whitewashing it a bit

Front 7

escape

Back 7

When escaping from something or someone, one always feels
as if one is not going fast enough, like a turtle on an expressway.

Front 8

environs

Back 8

To keep the environs clean and safe, you could cement daggers
in the road, blades pointed upwards, so that no polluting traf³c
could pass by. You could, if you were an ecologically-minded
terrorist

Front 9

patrol

Back 9

A virtual deluge of motorcycle police washing down a road is
this kanji’s image for a patrol

Front 10

car

Back 10

You may keep the whole range of connotations for this key
word, car, provided it does not interfere with the pictograph.
Look for the front and back wheels (the ³rst and last horizontal
strokes) and the seat in the carriage in the middle. As an
exercise, try to isolate the primitives on your own and make a
story out of them

Front 11

take along

Back 11

What you are meant to take along in this kanji are not things
but people. The image of the car on the road should ground
your image for picking up your friends to take them along to
wherever you are going

Front 12

rut

Back 12

Combine the primary and secondary meanings of this key
word to form your story. Begin with the car whose tires get
caught in a rut and spin without going anywhere. Then go on
to the baseball team who can’t win a game because it has fallen
into a rut of losing

Front 13

transport

Back 13

On the left we see a vehicle used for transport. On the right, we
see a new tangle of elements that need sorting out. The ³rst
three strokes, you will remember, are the primitive for meeting.
Below it we see the elements for μesh and saber, which combine
to create a compound element for a butcher and his trade. Put
them together in the image of a “trucker’s convoy

Front 14

in front

Back 14

We waited to introduce this character until now, even though
the pieces have been available for some time, because it helps
to reinforce the odd kanji of the last frame. Picture the butcher
hacking away with his knife at a slab of meat on his table with
a pair of ram’s horns placed in front of him (or on his head, if
you prefer).
There is no need to worry about confusing this kanji with that
for before (frame 248), since it will not appear as a primitive in
any other character used in this book

Front 15

each

Back 15

“Suum cuique” goes the popular Latin proverb. A certain disease
of the English language makes it almost impossible to
translate the phrase without gender bias. In any event, here we
see someone walking with his/her mouth between his/her walking
legs, giving us an image of “To each his/her own

Front 16

status

Back 16

If you can imagine trees as status symbols (as they might well
be for those living in Japan’s congested modern cities), then
each might be aiming to have his/her own tree, just to keep up
with the Suzukis

Front 17

abbreviation

Back 17

Each ³eld has its own abbreviations (chemistry, philosophy,
sports, etc.). Needless to say, the stronger primitive goes to the
left, even though the story would read them off the other way
around

Front 18

guest

Back 18

When you are a guest in a courteous town, each household has
its own way of welcoming you, and each house becomes your
home

Front 19

forehead

Back 19

Out of respect, you do not look straight into the eyes of your
guest, but look at the top button of their collar. Here, however,
you are told to look above the eyes to the forehead of your
guest

Front 20

summer

Back 20

In the summer, fatigued by the heat, your head hangs down
nearly as far as your walking legs, or rather, your “dragging
legs.”

Front 21

dispose

Back 21

Both the stretching out of the walking legs and the little bit of
wind tucked in on the right suggest using one’s legs to kick
something out of the way, or dispose of it.

Front 22

twig

Back 22

Geppetto made walking legs for his little Pinocchio from two
twigs of a tree, giving him a set of “twiggy” shanks

Front 23

fall

Back 23

When water falls, it splats and splashes; when μower petals fall,
they μoat gently in the breeze. To each thing its own way of
falling