自

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oneself

On-Yomi: ジ、シ — Kun-Yomi: みずか.ら、おの.ずから、おの.ずと

Elements:

oneself, drop, eye

Heisig story:

You can think of this kanji as a stylized pictograph of the nose, that little drop that Mother Nature set between your eyes. The Japanese refer to themselves by pointing a finger at their nose - giving us an easy way to remember the kanji for oneself.

Heisig comment:

* The same meaning of oneself can be kept when this kanji is used as a primitive element, but you will generally find it better to give it the meaning of nose or nostrils, both because it accords with the story above and because it is the first part of the kanji for nose (Frame 733).

Koohii stories:

1) [sutebun] 2-7-2007(140): To use an eyedropper by oneself, aim from above to put a drop into the eye.

2) [pikako] 14-11-2007(89): Faced with his clone, our hero valiantly cut a mark on his forehead right above his eye so that his comrades could tell his true oneself from the enemy.

3) [indigo360] 22-7-2008(77): I know this, but I am an idiot and forgot…. The way I remember this is to think of the way in which Japanese people point to themselves if they are unsure of who is being spoken to. In the west, we usually say, "me?" and point to ourselves (pointing to the chest), but in Japan, people say, "ore/boku/atashi?" and point directly at their nose, the drop between their eyes. True story.

4) [wraxus] 16-8-2008(40): Eyedrops are applied by ONESELF.

5) [kiisu] 22-1-2008(26): Me, myself and eye.

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