時

---

← →

time

On-Yomi: ジ — Kun-Yomi: とき、-どき

Elements:

time, sun, day, Buddhist temple, soil, dirt, ground, glue

Heisig story:

"What is time?" asked St. Augustine in his memoirs. "Ask me not, and I know. Ask me, and I cannot tell you." Here we have the kanji's answer to that perennial riddle. Time is a sun rising over a Buddhist temple. It sounds almost like a Zen kōan whose repetition might yield some deep secret to the initiated. At any rate, imagining a monk seated in meditation pondering it might help us remember the character.

Koohii stories:

1) [zdnks] 31-10-2007(120): When the SUN starts to shine on the TEMPLE, it's time to get up.

2) [Francois] 27-2-2008(102): In ancient Japan, TIME of ''day'' was announced at the ''buddhist temples''. They did this by ringing large iron bells. This is similar to churches who ring their bells to announce the time of day.

3) [Ningen] 26-8-2008(45): A day at a Buddhist temple is TIME well spent.

4) [Tatiana] 19-10-2006(21): You will fully understand the concept of time if you spend a day in a Buddhist temple.

5) [raye505] 5-6-2009(9): Time is marked by the sun at buddhist temples.

---