CHARACTER HOME PAGE

snake, serpent; hard drinker
Kanji 1341

Thank you for visiting this Character Home Page. Below you'll find a synopsis of the essay. If you wish to read the full text, the PDF of the essay is available for purchase to the right.

Synopsis

I'm the biggest snake-phobe around, and even so I can tell you that there’s plenty to enjoy about an examination of 蛇. It whisks us away in fun figurative directions, as with its connection to heavy drinking. On top of that, delving into this character opens a window onto Japanese culture, from its mythology, festivals, and religions to its musical instruments and children's songs.

Revision history:

June 22, 2021: p. 1: Deleted a stray punctuation mark.

Jan. 23, 2020:

  • p. 2: Etymology Box: Replaced the old Henshall etymology with the new one. 
  • p. 6: Edited Sidebar 1, which drew on the first edition of Henshall's book.
  • p. 16: Added a link to the Kanshudo games.

July 10, 2015:

  • p. 1: Changed the radical name from むし to むしへん.
  • p. 17: Reworked the text on this page quite a bit and fixed two dead links.

Jan. 11, 2013: Originally published.

Comments

eve's picture
I neglected to cover mythological snake hybrids, so if you want to know about those, check out Amy Chavez's Japan Times piece on that: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20130105cz.html
 

Add comment

Log in or register to post comments
Kanji PDF
Mini Profile
JOYO ON-YOMI
ジャ, ダ
JOYO KUN-YOMI
へび
STROKES11
RADICAL虫 (142: insect)
JLPTN1
HALPERN907/1230
HENSHALL1341/1434
SPAHN6d5.7