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雛祭り(ひなまつり) Japan's annual doll festival and girl's day
り, literally means 'doll festival', and is celebrated on the 3rd March every year. ひな祭り is a traditional family day in Japan, and commonly known as 'Girl's day' due to the custom of creating elaborate displays of
ひな
雛
にんぎょう
人形
, hina dolls, on multi-tiered platforms known as
ひなだん
雛壇
.
The origins of the 雛人形 date back thousands of years to a custom that originally began in China as a means of ridding oneself of bad luck and evil spirits. A paper or straw ひな is rubbed over one's body, transferring the evil to it, and then put on a boat and floated out to sea. One of the largest celebrations of this custom, known as
ながしひな
流し雛
, 'floating dolls', used to be put on by the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto at the junction of the two main rivers, the Takano and Kamo, but is now held out at sea due to problems with the dolls getting caught in fishing nets.
The 雛壇 are multi-tiered platforms covered in brightly colored red carpet. In a typical household dolls are placed on up to seven levels, but in some elaborate examples they can cover hundreds of steps of a temple staircase! Dolls on each level represent different court members from the
へいあん
平安
じだい
時代
, the Heian Era, starting with the Emperor, Empress, and then various attendants and musicians. All the dolls wear traditional court dress of the Heian Era - elaborate multi-layered kimono called
じゅうにひとえ
十二単
for women, and
そくたい
束帯
for males.
The Heian Era (literally 'peace era') of Japanese history, which began in 794 and lasted almost 200 years, is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and was a period in which poetry and literature flourished. The capital of Japan was moved to
へいあんきょう
平安京
, which became modern day
きょうと
京都
, Kyoto, and remained there for almost 1000 years, until the
めいじ
明治
いしん
維新
, the Meiji restoration, in 1868, which was the beginning of modern Japan.
ひな
雛
is a Jinmeiyō kanji, i.e. it is used in names (such as the girl's name ひな) - in total it appears in over 100 Japanese names. It has a frequency of 2357, which makes it less common than (most of) the 2136 Jōyō kanji, but more common than most of the kanji used only in names. It actually means 'chick' (as in, baby bird), and is composed of the two components 隹 and 芻. 隹 is a very common component meaning 'little bird' - it is used as
/searchcg?q=隹
part of 104 kanji
. 芻 is a much less common component meaning 'mow (grass etc.)'. 芻 makes more sense when you see it is composed of two more basic elements, both very common - 勹 meaning 'wrap' and 屮 meaning 'sprout'. Putting these components together, we have the Kanshudo mnemonic for 雛: 'you mow the grass (芻) for the little bird (隹) as it's just a chick'.
雛祭り is also a great opportunity to sample some colorful and tasty traditional Japanese dishes, in particular ちらし
ずし
寿司
, chirashizushi (a mix of vegetables, egg and seafood scattered on top of sushi rice),
わがし
和菓子
Japanese cakes and desserts, in particular the three-colored
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The Kanshudo kanji usefulness rating shows you how useful a kanji is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness of , which means it is among the most useful kanji in Japanese.
is one of the 138 kana characters, denoted with a usefulness rating of K. The kana are the most useful characters in Japanese, and we recommend you thoroughly learn all kana before progressing to kanji.
All kanji in our system are rated from 1-8, where 1 is the most useful.
The 2136 Jōyō kanji have usefulness levels from 1 to 5, and are denoted with badges like this:
The 138 kana are rated with usefulness K, and have a badge like this:
The Kanshudo usefulness level shows you how useful a Japanese word is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness level of , which means it is among the
most useful words in Japanese.
All words in our system
are rated from 1-12, where 1 is the most useful.
Words with a usefulness level of 9 or better are amongst the most useful 50,000 words in Japanese, and
have a colored badge in search results, eg:
Many useful words have multiple forms, and less common
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The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, 日本語能力試験) is the standard test of Japanese language ability for non-Japanese.
would first come up in level
N.
Kanshudo displays a badge indicating which level of the JLPT words, kanji and grammar points might first be used in:
indicates N5 (the first and easiest level)
indicates N1 (the highest and most difficult)
You can use Kanshudo to study for the JLPT. Kanshudo usefulness levels for kanji, words and grammar points map directly to JLPT levels, so your mastery level on Kanshudo is a direct indicator of your readiness for the JLPT exams.
Kanshudo usefulness counts up from 1, whereas the JLPT counts down from 5 - so the first JLPT level, N5, is equivalent to Kanshudo usefulness level .
The JLPT vocabulary lists were compiled by Wikipedia and Tanos from past papers. Sometimes the form listed by the sources is not the most useful form. In case of doubt, we advise you to learn the Kanshudo recommended form. Words that appear in the JLPT lists in a different form are indicated with a lighter colored 'shadow' badge, like this: .
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