左

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left

On-Yomi: サ、シャ — Kun-Yomi: ひだり

Elements:

left, by one’s side, craft

Heisig story:

By combining the primitive and the kanji of the last two frames and reading the results, we get: by one's side . . . craft. Conveniently, the left has traditionally been considered the "sinister" side, where dark and occult crafts are cultivated. Note how the second stroke droops over to the left and is longer than the first.

Koohii stories:

1) [Ninjasha] 19-2-2008(92): The LEFT side of my brain posesses the faculties needed for logical crafts, like engineering.

2) [stereovibe] 4-2-2008(65): The left side of my brain, is for crafts.

3) [torida] 26-5-2010(49): FOR THOSE ABOUT TO PUZZLE OVER THE CHANGING STROKE ORDER, IT'S THIS SIMPLE: Look at the second primitive! Here, the first stroke of by one's side should match the first stroke of craft so that the stroke direction alternates in writing. So 左 is written horizontal, vertical, horizontal… 右 is written vertical, horizontal, vertical… 有 is vertical, horizontal, vertical… etc. (The ONLY exception to this rule comes with elbow [masculine/male (#743 雄) 雄 ], which is written horizontal, vertical, vertical(ish)…).

4) [martin] 22-11-2005(35): To remember which one is right/left, think "(l)Eft", as it contains the katakana "e".

5) [paulk] 29-7-2007(24): Sinister craft is done with the left hand.

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