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It Takes a Village

In Kanji Pict-o-graphix, Michael Rowley explains that means “village” when on the right-hand side of a character and “hill” when on the left. This makes perfect sense in terms of our main kanji:

(KYŌ, GŌ, sato: (1) village; (2) countryside; country)

Here’s a sample word that incorporates this kanji:

郷党 (kyōtō: people from one’s hometown)
     village + faction

In other words, these are “village people”—but not the Village People!

Rowley presents several kanji to illustrate the point further:

(TO, TSU, miyako: metropolis) 

We know this from 京都 (Kyōto: capital + metropolis).

(KŌ: suburbs)

This is part of the word 郊外 (kōgai: suburbs, suburb + outside).

(YŪ: mail)

It’s harder to see the village connection here. You may know this kanji from 郵便局 (yūbinkyoku: post office, mail + mail + public service).

Putting it all together, we can make the following sentence:

外の便局で党に巡り会いました。
Kyōto no kōgai no yūbinkyoku de kyōtō ni meguriaimashita.
At the post office in a Kyoto suburb, (I) happened to meet people from my hometown.

You know about all the kanji except this one:

巡り会う (meguriau: to happen to meet)
     to go round + to meet

I adore the kanji! Very cool looking!

To form this sentence, it truly takes a village—in fact four of them!

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