Creative kanji
[The following is a guest post by Nathan Hopson]
The results are in from the 11th Kanji Creation Contest (Sōsaku Kanji Kontesuto), sponsored by Sankei Shinbun newspaper and the Shirakawa Shizuka Institute of East Asian Characters and Culture at Ritsumeikan University. Out of a total of over 26,000 entries in the general, high school, and elementary and middle school divisions, the overall winner was a very 2020 take on the character 座 (za, “to sit”).
Example 1
Fig. 1 Standard (left) and prizewinning creative kanji for “to sit.”
The character (in both its standard and creative forms) is made up of three elements:
- 广
- 土
- 人
Of these, it is the last that is subtly manipulated here. That element, also an independent kanji in its own right, means “person.” By moving the two “people” apart, the contest winner expressed the idea of “sitting apart,” or social distancing.
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