魚の漢字 (Sakana no Kanji) – Fish in Chinese Character

23rd March – 弥生

From the old time, 魚(Sakana=Fish) has been popularly eaten by Japanese. There are heaps different fish species exist in the ocean and Japanese enjoy tasting many different kinds of Sakana. It is interesting that each Sakana has its own Chinese Characters and many of them include 魚!

-鮪 (Maguro): Tuna

有 has meaning of having, wide range. As Tuna has a lot flesh and there are many places they are swimming therefore this Kanji was aplied.

-鰻 (Unagi): Eel

曼 means long, thin and extending in Japanese as you can imagine from eel.

‐鰹 (Katsuo): Bonito

Bonito has been dried and used for bonito flakes in Japan. Dried bonito is very hard so the Kanji 堅 meaning firm / tough applied.

‐鯖 (Saba): Mackerel

Mackerels are blue color and 靑 is the old style of 青 (Blue).

‐鯵 (Aji): Horse mackerel

The best season for Horse mackerel is in March, 参 is used as it has the meaning of 3.

‐鰯 (Iwashi): Sardine

Sardine is known as weak fish and it is easy to go bad. Therefore the Kanji meaning weak 弱 is applied.

‐鯛 (Tai): Red snapper

Red snappers can be caught everywhere and anytime of the year in Japan. Therefore using 周 with the meaning of around to express the characteristics of red snappers.

‐鰈 (Karei): Flounder

枼 means plant leaf, as Flounder is flat like a plant leaf this Kanji is applied

‐鮒 (Funa): Crucian carp

付, meaning of sticking, attaching and it is pronounced as ふ (Fu) so same sound as ‘Fu’na. Also Crucian carp swim with flock, sticking together, that is why this Kanji was chosen.

‐鱚 (Kisu): Sand borer

Again, this Kanji was used because of the sound of first letter ‘Ki’ is the same as the kanji 喜.

‐鱈 (Tara): Cod

Cod can be caught around the time when the first snow falls in the year. You can now guess that 雪 means snow.

‐鮭 (Sake): Salmon

Kanji for salmon used to be 鮏 with the meaning of fishy smell. Then it has changed to 圭, this shape is close to the previous kanji and 圭 can be fit into 2 triangle = good shaped fish. Now 11th of November is known as Salmon day, can you guess why? (11th November in Kanji is 十一月十一日)

‐鰤 (Buri): Yellowtail

The season for yellowtail is in December, the Japanese another name for December is 師走 (Shiwasu), so 師 is used.

-秋刀魚 (Sanma): Pacific saury

Pacific saury is eaten in Autumn (秋 Aki) season the most, and the shape of this fish is sharp like a sword (刀 Katana).

‐海老 (Ebi): Shrimp

Shrimp looks old as its back is bended, so people put the letter of 老, meaning of old.

All of these the Kanji characters for fish have the origin of why those kanji was used for the particular fish.

Isn’t it interesting?:)