為

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← →

do

On-Yomi: イ — Kun-Yomi: ため、な.る、な.す、す.る、たり、つく.る、なり

Elements:

do, so, strange building, tail feathers

Primitive:

tail feathers So as not to confuse this primitive element with the character for feathers, think of the extravagant tail-feather plumage of the peacock. The form itself is too pictographic to need breaking down further. [5]

Heisig story:

This character rightly belongs to the previous lesson, but we held it until now because of the final element, the tail feathers. After the drop at the outset, the next three strokes are completely novel and should be given special attention.

Koohii stories:

1) [romanrozhok] 12-3-2008(392): In this kanji, you can see 3 katakana characters: ソ, ユ, and then ユ again followed by TAIL FEATHERS. STORY: "So (ソ) you (ユ) wanna DO it?" "Only if you (ユ) do" says the female bird as she raises her TAIL FEATHERS.

2) [zazen666] 12-10-2007(42): Do me from behind, says the bird, as she shakes her tailfeathers.

3) [Alunalun] 11-8-2009(20): Tell a story - a reluctant magician is asked to do a trick. The audience chant 'Do it, do it!', so eventually he does one. He takes a drop of water (stroke 1), drops it on the ground where it runs down and smears out (stroke 2). It drops down two steps (strokes 3 and 4) (imagine some nice setting with steps), growing and becoming multicoloured, like a petrol drop, as it goes. Then at the bottom the magician touches it with his wand and you see it has turned into a set of peacock's tail feathers.

4) [gavin.schultz-ohkubo] 20-11-2010(12): The keyword "do" is just too generic for me, so I use "for the sake of", which is perhaps a more common reading; for those familiar with the phrase ために, I believe this is the kanji for ため.

5) [sgrant] 18-1-2009(9): "I do!" says the bride before tripping over a spear, falling down the stairs and into the flames.

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