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Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan?

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prgee
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Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan?

Postby prgee » May 19th, 2014 4:05 pm

Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan? In Heisig 's book this kanji is named "street". I don't live in Japan. So I hope you guys living in Japan know the correct answer. Also why is it a part of kitchen knife- 包丁-ほうちょう ? Thank you all.

KingDog
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Re: Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan?

Postby KingDog » May 19th, 2014 5:13 pm

丁 has a few meanings including "street". It the case of 包丁 I believe it takes on it's secondary meaning of "tool/worker/servant". The kanji would read - kitchen tool. It can also be used as a counter for servings etc.

Heisig will introduce you to the primary meaning of most kanji but they often have secondary meanings that you'll certainly learn as you start seeing the kanji in action :)

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prgee
New in Town
Posts: 11
Joined: September 8th, 2010 4:23 am

Re: Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan?

Postby prgee » May 20th, 2014 3:18 am

Thank you for the reply. Maybe I put too much emphasis on kitchen knife thing. It is my fault.

My question: is 丁 a really a street sign which is a horizontal arm with some street name, attached to a long pole next to a road?
Image

Google images show guns, door hinges but not necessarily street sign: https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E4%B ... 66&bih=667

community.japanese
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Re: Does the kanji 丁 stand for street sign in Japan?

Postby community.japanese » May 20th, 2014 7:51 am

prgee san,
You can see a sign for example, 四谷三丁目in Japan (Tokyo).
In Japan we don’t use street names for addresses. We use blocks instead.
One block is divided into several numbers.
Suppose, one block named 四谷(よつや)and it is divided into three.
Then three are 四谷一丁目、四谷二丁目 and四谷三丁目.

KingDog san,
Thank you for the post. Yes, that’s right.
Kanji has several meanings.

Yuki 由紀
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