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measuring box

On-Yomi: ショウ — Kun-Yomi: ます

Elements:

measuring box, thousand, drop, ten, needle

Heisig story:

This is the character for the little wooden box that the Japanese use for measuring things, as well as for drinking saké out of. Simply imagine the outside as spiked with a thousand sharp needles, and the quaint little measuring box becomes a drinker's nightmare! Be very careful when you write this character not to confuse it with the writing of thousand. The reason for the difference gives us a chance to clarify another general principle of writing that supersedes the one we mentioned in frame 4: when a single stroke runs vertically through the middle of a character, it is written last.

Koohii stories:

1) [solarmist] 26-6-2008(393): It is a thousand or ten? I need my measuring box.

2) [Christine_Tham] 21-7-2007(120): I can fit a thousand needles into my measuring box, but only if I bend the thousand.

3) [johanvg] 11-7-2006(75): A measuring box is a square wooden box that was used to measure one thousand grains of rice (needles) in feudal Japan. It was supposed to be enough to feed a working man for one day.

4) [panikbuton] 20-1-2008(31): Be careful when drinking sake out of a deep measuring box. The hangover can feel like a thousand needles.

5) [Wosret] 25-4-2008(23): Give me a thousand smacks with a walking stick if I forget the Kanji for measuring box again!

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