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Japanese Judas-tree

On-Yomi: ケイ — Kun-Yomi: かつら

Elements:

Japanese Judas tree, tree, wood, ivy, square jewel, soil, dirt, ground, soil2, dirt2, ground2

Heisig story:

Unless you are a botanist, you are not likely to know what a Japanese Judas-tree looks like, and probably never even heard of it before, but the name is sufficiently odd to make remembering it easy. Using the primitives as our guide, we define it as a tree with ivy growing down its branches in the shape of a hangman's rope.

Koohii stories:

1) [fuaburisu] 26-1-2006(158): Simple mnemonic : "The Japanese Judas-tree is the tree on which Judas hang himself to the ivy" (Judas the traitor of the Christian bible). Just picture Judas hanging himself, using ivy as a if it was a rope.

2) [Ninjasha] 6-1-2008(92): A tree covered in poison ivy will quickly betray you, thus the name JAPANESE JUDAS-TREE.

3) [kaminix] 2-3-2008(35): The Katsura (Japanese Judas-tree) is a thin tree (sort of like the stretched out 木 used in this kanji) with little green (the color of an emerald, a jewel) leaves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsura_(tree).

4) [romanrozhok] 4-8-2008(15): Japanese JEWEL TREE sounds like JUDAS-tree.

5) [elktapestry] 28-3-2007(13): Interesting… this tree is called a かつら (Katura) Tree in Japan. It got the Japanese Judas-Tree distinction because it bears a similar leaf-type to the Judas Tree found in Europe and such. For fun word-play with both the Judas & Katsura distinctions… it might be good to learn that a homonym for Katsura (w/different Kanji 鬘) is a hairpiece or wig! So now imagine some dishevled business man with a funny hairpiece stringing ivy around the Katsura/Judas tree to hang himself with!!

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