県

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prefecture

On-Yomi: ケン — Kun-Yomi: か.ける

Elements:

prefecture, eye, fishhook, small, little

Heisig story:

Above, an eye and a fishhook, and below the primitive for little. Although apparently the simplest of these first six kanji, when you begin to work on its plot and story you will soon find out that the number of strokes and visual complexity of a kanji does not make it easier or harder to remember. It is the primitives you have to work that are the critical factor, as in this case where the meaning of the key word is so seemingly distant from the elements. Remember, you can always break larger elements down (eye of a needle into eye and fishhook) if you think it helps.

Koohii stories:

1) [AndamanIslander] 6-4-2008(206): In Japanese this is KEN, as in Barbie's boyfriend. He has lovely blue eyes, a girlfriend who is as thin as a straightened out fish hook. But, down where it counts, he has very little to show…

2) [smithsonian] 9-1-2007(177): After sticking a fishhook in your eye, the yakuza boss probably has little more to do to convince you to move to a different prefecture.

3) [kresobilan] 5-3-2008(81): Smaller administrative units, hooked together by a (Sauron's) central eye.

4) [raulir] 25-4-2006(53): Contradictory to what Heisig says, there is no eye of a needle in this picture, because that would be the top part of 直 . Instead, there is the eye of a fishhook. I will not hazard a guess as to what lives in such a place, but in fact the eye of a fishhook - as it has well-defined borders - makes a small prefecture of its own.

5) [cameron_en] 22-6-2008(48): Eye (I) live in a small prefecture full of hookers.

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