別
← →
separate
On-Yomi: ベツ — Kun-Yomi: わか.れる、わ.ける
Elements:
separate, mouth, bound up, sword, sabre, saber
Heisig story:
In the Old East, the samurai and his saber were never separated. They were constant companions, like the cowboy of the Old West and his six-shooter. This character depicts what must have been the height of separation-anxiety for a samurai: to be bound up with a rope and unable to get at his saber leaning only a few feet away from him. Look at that mouth bellowing out for shame and sorrow! Note the order in which the element for tied up is written - just as it had been with the character for ten thousand.
Koohii stories:
1) [leviathan] 20-3-2006(154): I don't know about you but to me this seems like someone's head is about to be separated from his body. You can see he's kneeling and his mouth is wide open gasping for the last breath he will ever take.
2) [thatkidpercy] 16-11-2007(119): A wise old samurai keeps his hostages (with their mouths bound up to keep them quiet) in a separate room from his sabers. Putting them together would be a silly mistake.
3) [Christine_Tham] 3-8-2007(69): The prisoner with the BOUND MOUTH was separated from his SABRE.
4) [tharvey] 12-11-2009(16): They separated me from the group. They gagged my mouth, bound me up, and threatened me with a saber.
5) [canji] 3-1-2010(13): In Empire Strikes Back, Luke was hanging upside down, muttered with his mouth "Ben, Ben, Ben", his feet bound in ice, he was separated from his light sabre. And he could hear the monster coming for him.