10

Bundle 10: Be Square

As these essays amply demonstrate, squares delineate much of life in Japan. Two tatami mats placed side by side form a square, and those squares (坪) constitute units of measurements, whether of floor space or land area. Ceilings traditionally have lattice patterns. Students write in squares on grid paper. People drink saké from wooden masu boxes. Japanese wells are typically square, and the shape of a well ledge has inspired all kinds of hashtag-like designs from famous corporate logos to family crests to fabric patterns. These essays will have you thinking inside the box!
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升
measure
JOK: 1386
Find out why the Japanese drink saké out of small wooden boxes. Learn how their role has changed in Japan over time, and see how they have brought out the playfulness in designers. Learn when to interpret 升 as a unit of measurement or as a container, and distinguish 升 from 枡, 斗, 合, and 昇, which have overlapping meanings. Finally, see why 升 is popular in a Chinese context. By the way, the JOK Notebook entry for March 1, 2013, takes a close look at eight of the Japanese sentences that appear in this essay.
井
well
JOK: 1470
Why have the Japanese worshipped well water, shouted down wells, and jokingly called the Edo era the "Ido" era? How do people use the shape of a well in everything from kimono cloth to business slang? How does 井 figure into economic and political discussions? Find out all of this and much more, including the role of wells in folktales, proverbs, and Haruki Murakami's fiction.
坪
tsubo
JOK: 1609
Discover an efficient way to convey the size of living spaces and land. Find out what these statements mean: “This house has 40 tsubo of floor space” or “The family owned a 60,000-tsubo plot of land.” Learn to say, “Land in this area is valued at 1,138,000 yen per tsubo” and “I asked what the land price was per tsubo.” Also find out about tucked-away gardens in Kyoto courtyards.
斗
Big Dipper
JOK: 1633
The dipper kanji helps you hold your liquor! That is, its core meaning is "dipper," a device to scoop saké. (It means "dipper" in the constellation sense, too!) Using 斗, we can also measure large quantities of that saké. By studying 斗, we find out about noshi. And that's not all! The 斗 shape is a ryakuji (a simplified form of more complex kanji), as well as a radical.
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