[Facts] Re: Amateratsu and Uzume
by তন্ময় ভ (guest)
7/9/2010, 6:52 PM
The U+5b87 宇 Kanji which you write `heaven' and ClaudiaS calls `another heaven' is a Kanji for house; building, structure, eaves which as Hanzi usually means room or universe (This is the historical parent of the /u/ in hiragana う and and katakana 宇). The first Kanji U+5929 天 on the other hand is sky (etymologically, ceiling above man), heaven; god, celestial which is used for the meanings day, sky, heaven. The U+53d7 受 is indeed receive (etymologically hand as in claw+hand as in and+boat standing for its sound jau), accept, get; bear, stand, but is also to endure or simply a passive marker. The U+58f2 売 is interesting, because it means sell, but etymologically it (and U+5356 卖) derives as a simplification of U+8ce3 賣 where sell (etymologically compound of output, itself from plant + receptacle meaning earth; and goods, itself net + sea-shells) has been extended in meaning to betray and show off: I do not know the history of the mythology well enough to know if that is relevant.
The U+923f 鈿 that you could not find and ClaudiaS called an `ornamental hairpiece' is usually hairpin; gold inlaid work, filigree. To complete U+5973 女 is, of course, woman (etymologically only one breast has survived in the pictogram: the cognate mother preserves both and the nipples), girl, feminine, female (and is the ancestor of /me/ in hiragana め and katakana メ).
Disclaimer: I know no Kanji/Hanji/Katakana/Hiragana/Japanese/Chinese or anything relevant to the above, whereas ClaudiaS and egyptianpanda obviously do: so treating all the above as made up is not likely to be far wrong :-)