UN

If you want to read the full story, start here: Koyasan story - Part 1

When we arrived to Koya-san we were not expecting what we found.  When we got there we realized that the next day (a Monday) was the birthday of Kobo Daishi, the man who introduced Esoteric Buddhism in Japan from China over a thousand years ago.  Also, we soon discovered  that this was the year that they celebrate exactly 1200 years of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan. We were amazed at how lucky we were to just so happen to be in Koya-san while they were celebrating such an important holiday for them on a very special year. It was fate.

Group of monks headed to the main temple where the Kobo Daishi
birthday celebration and prayers were to take place.

There were festivities going on everywhere and they would continue on to the next day.  Monks were roaming around the small religious town and were all in very beautiful celebratory clothes.  The place felt very lively and happy.  There was a lot of people packed in the small town.  It seemed as if all the religious Buddhists of Japan were in Koya-san that weekend.  I also felt very humbled to have that opportunity to see get a glimpse of this aspect of Japanese culture, as there were very few foreigners there with us.  

We ended up deciding to stay the night at a temple with monks and skipped class the next day.  We felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we could not miss.. and we were right.

The character "un" means luck or fortune but it could also mean to carry or motion. For instance, 運動 (undou) means exercise.

It can be paired with the character "inochi" which is also used in words and pronounced as "mei":

INOCHI

Inochi or mei, can represent things like destiny, life and decree, as in something that has "ordered" for stuff to happen to you throughout your existence. 

Together, these characters form the word UNMEI.

UNMEI

Unmei is the word for fate/destiny.

Whew, with two characters we knocked out so many different words :)

Continue this story HERE


OR

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YAMA

We were on our way to Koya-san (高野山), which is where I finally decided that the three of us should go for a day trip on our day off.  There was not much said in my book about the place except that this is where esoteric Buddhism was founded in Japan back in 800-something A.D.  We had considered going to a few major cities like Kobē, Nagoya, and Ōsaka but we were having trouble making a final decision.  Finally I hastily decided at the last minute that we were going to "off-road" and have an adventure: we were going to the remotely-located town of Koya-san.  

On the last train headed to Koyasan.  I was reading "The
Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan" by Yasushi Inoue

It was pretty complicated to get there.  We had to take three different trains and then a cable car up the mountain. While in the third train, until then I had not payed much attention to the outside of the train until I was engulfed by mountains all of a sudden.

There is something about mountains that make a place feel so spiritual.  I had never thought of mountains in that way before traveling to Japan.  Koya-san is nestled in the mountains in the center of the Kii Peninsula.  It had one main street and a few minor streets where more than one-hundred temples were right next to one another.  Other than that there was the prevailing presence of the mountains and the nature.  It was extremely breath-taking and it felt like a very sacred place.

Looking out of my window on the train and suddenly being
engulfed in mountains!

Continue this story HERE

Now for the Kani!

山
Kunyomi:  やま - "yama"
Onyomi: サン - "san", セン "sen"
Meaning: mountain

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 1
JLPT level N5
131 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

                      

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KAMI

Happy middle of summer everyone.  I am digging up this blog from the grave and turning it into my next project: each new post from now on will be somewhat related to a new Kanji character that I will write about and meanwhile try to learn.  I thought this could be a creative way to learn Japanese Kanji for myself and perhaps other people out there as well that stumble upon this blog some day.

My first name is Kamilah but most people call me "Kami" for short.  Earlier this summer I set out on one of the most amazing adventures of my life: I travelled to Japan.  When I was asked for my name over there, I would simply reply "Kami" thinking "Kamilah" was too long and complicated a name.  The reactions of the Japanese people were mostly either surprised, impressed, or they would laugh.  During my first week, I picked up this book called "Shinto: The Kami Way" by Sokyo Ono that I found in a bookstore outside the Kyoto National Museum.

Book I picked up in the Kyoto National
Museum bookstore

I then realized my name in Japanese is the word for "god" or "spirit" or "deity".  It comes from the Shinto religion, which is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people.  Shintō is composed of two ideographs.  The kanji above can also be called "shin", or "kami", and then 道 (dō or tō) meaning "way".  In other words, "Shinto" implies faith in the kami or spiritual life and harmony attained through worship and in communion with the kami.  It is an all-inclusive term embracing the various faiths which have the kami-idea (including Buddhism and Christianity).

So I decided to learn this Kanji character first because I found it interesting how my nickname had a deeper meaning in Japanese culture and spirituality.  

Now for the Kanji!

神
Kunyomi:  かみ - "kami"
Onyomi: シン - "shin", ジン - "jin"
Meaning: god(s), spirit(s), mind, soul

Jōyō Kanji taught in grade 3
JLPT level N3
347 of 2500 most common used kanji in newspapers.

神社 - "jinja" means Shinto Shrine

神主 - "Kan'nushi" means Shinto priest

神風 - "Kamikaze" means Kamikaze (in WWII a Japanese aircraft loaded with 

explosives that would make a deliberate suicidal crash on enemy targets),

or it means mysterious wind.

神隠し - "Kamikakoshi" means mysterious disappearance. 

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