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ArchivesRe: Amateratsu and Uzume
in reply to a message by তন্ময় ভ
I am not sure that the historical etymology of each kanji helps in understanding the intended "meaning" of a Japanese name, though it is certainly interesting. :)
My educated guess is that the kanji 鈿女 for Uzume are older than 宇受売. Because the kanji "uzu" 鈿 is rather obscure, at some point it was most likely replaced by the very common 宇 and 受 (宇受 would be pronounced "uju" in modern Japanese but is easily readable as "uzu".) In this case, the meaning of 宇 and 受 would be irrelevant because they would be used for their phonetic quality only.
This does not explain why the kanji for the last syllable, "me," would have been altered from 女 from 売. "Me" is an accepted reading for both those kanji, and 女 "female" seems more in line with the name of a mythological character than 売 "sell." But in any case, I doubt that "receive" and "sell" had anything to do with the original meaning of the name.
If this theory is correct, then the original or at least older meaning of Uzume might be loosely interpreted as "heavenly ornamented woman."
My educated guess is that the kanji 鈿女 for Uzume are older than 宇受売. Because the kanji "uzu" 鈿 is rather obscure, at some point it was most likely replaced by the very common 宇 and 受 (宇受 would be pronounced "uju" in modern Japanese but is easily readable as "uzu".) In this case, the meaning of 宇 and 受 would be irrelevant because they would be used for their phonetic quality only.
This does not explain why the kanji for the last syllable, "me," would have been altered from 女 from 売. "Me" is an accepted reading for both those kanji, and 女 "female" seems more in line with the name of a mythological character than 売 "sell." But in any case, I doubt that "receive" and "sell" had anything to do with the original meaning of the name.
If this theory is correct, then the original or at least older meaning of Uzume might be loosely interpreted as "heavenly ornamented woman."
This message was edited 7/9/2010, 7:52 PM
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Replies
The interesting thing is that these myths are so old, that they come down to us from texts written in classical chinese, so it is not at all clear to me whether we should use a chinese/korean mindset of `understanding' each character in depth, or the Japanese mindset of the primacy of the spoken language. But, I am out of my depth here: I do not know enough about any of these cultures, past or present ... I quoted the historical etymology simply for fun.
OK, back to the point, do you know if Uzume appears in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, and what spelling is used there?
OK, back to the point, do you know if Uzume appears in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, and what spelling is used there?
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Well, now you're asking me! That is not my area of expertise and I don't have copies of those texts. If either is available online, I could search for the names, but that is about as far as I can go.
To the best of my knowledge, the mythological characters in question are indigenous to Japan. Whether the very earliest texts written in Japan (written in classical Chinese, without doubt, but actually originating in Japan) show the now-typical attempts to match Chinese characters to Japanese phonology without regard to semantics, is a question for a historian.
To the best of my knowledge, the mythological characters in question are indigenous to Japan. Whether the very earliest texts written in Japan (written in classical Chinese, without doubt, but actually originating in Japan) show the now-typical attempts to match Chinese characters to Japanese phonology without regard to semantics, is a question for a historian.
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