Cause

by Nao

yoshi, yū, yui, yu

This character means cause, reason, and means.

The reading, yoshi, is formal. In writing, you can write like, “shiru yoshi mo nai,” meaning that there is no way of knowing it. Only shi is kanji. Yoshi is today’s character. The other characters are hiragana.

Riyū is reason or cause. Jiyū also means reason, but it is a written word. Both yū are today’s character.

When it is used for personal names, it is often read yu. The current Japanese Prime Minister’s name is Yukio Hatoyama. The first character of his first name is this character.

1. Draw the left side of the rectangle.
2. Start from where you start the previous stroke and draw the right-angled hook.
3. Draw the vertical stroke from top to bottom.
4. Draw the horizontal stroke in the rectangle.
5. Draw the horizontal stroke at the bottom.