万

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ten thousand

On-Yomi: マン、バン — Kun-Yomi: よろず

Elements:

ten thousand, one, ceiling, bound up

Heisig story:

Japanese counts higher numbers in units of ten thousand, unlike the West, which advances according to units of one thousand. (Thus, for instance, 40,000 would be read "four ten-thousands" by a Japanese.) Given that the comma is used in larger numbers to bind up a numerical unit of one thousand, the elements for one and bound up naturally come to form ten thousand. The order of strokes here needs special attention, both because it falls outside the general principles we have learned already, and because it involves writing the element for bound up in an order opposite to the one we learned. If it is any consolation, this exception is consistent every time these three strokes come together.

Koohii stories:

1) [Tsuki11] 30-10-2007(249): I bound ten thousand dollars together and hid it under the floor.

2) [Sleepyhead] 30-1-2009(87): IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!!

3) [Starkii] 10-6-2008(58): It looks like a T and an H put together.

4) [Narges] 13-11-2006(49): We have "one" at the top and if you turn the kanji 90 degrees you will see arabic 4 shich means it has four zeros in front of it!

5) [Tatiana] 18-10-2006(21): Think of Tao: ten thousand things are all bound up into one.

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