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| Tachi-iri kinshi (no entry) |
Returning from a trip to the UK, I will never forget the moment I reached my one-room apartment in Japan only to find a big red sign stuck to my door and tape criss-crossing the door frame, like something from a crime scene. Had someone died inside while I was away? Panic is definitely not conducive to reading
kanji - it was late, I was jet-lagged, and I was worried about where I was going to sleep that night - but after I had recovered from the initial shock I began to decipher the four-character compound, known in Japanese as
yoji-jukugo (四字熟語）. I had seen the last two characters quite a bit on signs in the neighbourhood and knew they were read
kinshi （禁止） meaning "forbidden/prohibited." The first two were beginner level
kanji: 立入 (
tachi-iri), literally "stand" and "enter." So basically, standing and entering (=going into) was forbidden. Maybe there
was a dead body inside...
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Fortunately, the whole thing turned out to be a huge misunderstanding, but it did help to burn that particular compound phrase into my brain. The fact is that Japan is a very rule oriented society and rules are written (and spoken) everywhere (though
not always enforced). An
earlier post referred to Yoshio Sugimoto's characterisation of Japanese society's framework of control, regulation, and regimentation as "friendly authoritarianism" and he (2014: 326) notes how power is made "highly visible and tangible." This is maybe not great from a democracy/human rights perspective but for the Japanese
kanji learner, it can be a boon. For example, a short walk with my dog the other morning found four variations of the XY-
kinshi (XY-forbidden) four-character compounds plus a
shiyō-
chūshi (使用中止=use suspended) compound (all pictured below).
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| From left to right (1) shiyō chūshi (2) fuhō tōki (illegal dumping) kinshi (3) tsūkō (thoroughfare) kinshi (4) shin'nyū (entry) kinshi (5) mudan tachi-iri (admittance without permission) kinshi |
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| Karasu Shin'nyū kinshi |
On a lighter note, it was something of a relief to find a humourous
kinshi sign (left) - this was placed in the rubbish collection point of my apartment. If you need a hint,
karasu were covered in
this post and
shin'nyū means incursion or invasion! In summary, observing and understanding the signs around you (important in unto itself) has the added benefit of teaching and reinforcing everyday
kanji, thereby "killing two birds (or crows?) with one stone" - rendered in Japanese as
isseki nichō (一石二鳥), a compound of the characters for one/stone/two/bird! Who says Japanese is difficult...
