Widespread

by Nao

bi, mi, ya

A familiar word including this character is yayoi. It consists of this character and this and means March. Since this character means widespread or ever more and the second character means to grow, the combined meaning is to grow ever more. In March, plants grow ever more.

The word yayoi is used for names. Some women have this name and some towns, this name. In 1884, some artifacts were uncovered in a place called Yayoi in Hongo, Tokyo. Archeologists called this artifacts yayoishiski doki, or Yayoi pottery. They indicate a distinguished period in Japanese history. Since then, the period is called the Yayoi period (5 B.C. – 3 A.D).

The left-hand side of the character is yumi (a bow).

1. Begin to draw the bow. Draw the hook on the top.
2. Draw the horizontal stroke.
3. Draw the short vertical stroke.
4. Draw the hook. Change the direction of the brush three times.
5. Begin to draw the right-hand side of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top center.
6. Draw the horizontal stroke.
7. Draw the vertical stroke with an upward turn at the bottom.
8. Draw the sweeping stroke near the center.
9. Draw the dot to the right.

The third and fourth strokes are one stroke when you write this character with a pen. So, it’s an 8-stroke character originally.

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