Aiko Ichimura on thu 27 apr 00
Sorry this is better version of wordwrapping.
Hi all,
I get such a pleasure when I find out the etymology of words.> Recently I
came across the description of the etymology for "Kama", kiln in Chinese
character. I enjoyed reading it immensely, I thought some of you would
too:
In Japanese, the word "kama" or "you" is used for kiln and it came from
Chinese character "Yao". You remember "Jun- Yao"?.
There is one more character for kiln, however, I am going to write about
the first one "Yao". If you dissect the character "Yao", you will see 3
distinctive parts: cave, goat > and fire, from the top to bottom of the
character. The goats, they were extremely important > commodity for the
nomadic people in ancient China: the milk and meat for the source of food
and the skin for clothing material.
So if you analyze the character "Beauty" in the Chinese character, it
consists of "goat" and "Big". How about the word for "to Yearn or envy":
goat and laver( mouth water) thus, the goat character symbolizes something
beautiful( or important) things.
So "Yao" means cave or place where the beautiful( or important) things
that people envy are fired. This was one interpretation of the character
"Yao"
.
Probably There could be other interpretations that might be known by the
Chinese people.
But it all make sense to me.
I just read an annecdote in the Japanese Pottery Mailing list about this
old lady who has been working in the pottery kiln for 60 years in Okinawa
where Hamada worked 60 yearsago when she was little. She remembered that her
father telling her " Dear, to do good work, be mindfull about your eyes,
hands and heart". I thought ,may be, we should create a character that
consist of clay,eyes, hands and heart, meaning "Good work of pottery".
Aiko in DC where the dogwoods are full blossom.
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