火

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fire

On-Yomi: カ — Kun-Yomi: ひ、-び、ほ-

Elements:

fire

Heisig story:

Just as sitting before a fire enlivens the imagination and lets you see almost anything you want to in the flames, this kanji is so simple it lets you see almost any sort of fire you want to see. It no longer makes a good pictograph, but I invite you to take a pencil and paper and play with the form - first writing it as shown below and then adding lines here and there - to see what you can come up with. Everything from matchbooks to cigarette lighters to volcanic eruptions to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found here. No doubt you, too, will find something interesting to bend your memory around these four simple strokes.

Heisig comment:

* To avoid confusion later on, it is best to keep to the meaning of a fireplace (or hearth) or a raging conflagration like a forest fire for this kanji's primitive meaning. Another primitive element for fire, based on this one, is written as 4 small drops and will mean flames, cauldron, cooking fire, or an oven fire.

Koohii stories:

1) [munia] 22-2-2008(57): For some reason, this kanji reminds me of a person running, her arms (the two drops) raised up, because she caught on fire!

2) [raseru] 16-6-2008(29): A tepee getting shot at by fire arrows.

3) [mistamark] 3-9-2008(23): To be honest, it just looks like the flames of a fire to me.

4) [LoneDeranger] 7-2-2009(11): Looks like a flame of a campfire with two drops of sparks flying off.

5) [ryowarrior18] 16-8-2009(8): A FIREbender from Avatar, wielding flames in both hands.

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