B JapanEmbDC.JICC V japanembdc F user/JICCDC O JICCDC 1150 18th Street NW, Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20036-3838 TEL: 202-238-6900 | FAX: 202-822-6524 | [email protected] KANJI: PAINTING APRIL 3, 2018 TEACHING TUESDAY The kanji for painting or picture, 絵, is a simplified version of a much more complicated Middle Chinese character 繪. The original kanji combined two radicals, 會 meaning to reduce or eliminate space, and 糸 which meant thread. Combined, they created the image of threads filling a frame to create a work of decoration. Eventually this came to mean “paint”, “picture”, “drawing”, and more, as well as being simplified down into the present Japanese version of the kanji, 絵. Reading: え ay Meaning: picture; drawing; painting; sketch 絵 Japan Celebration by Yuki Ideguchi