鬱
← →
gloom
On-Yomi: ウツ — Kun-Yomi: うっ.する、 しげ.る、 ふさ.ぐ
Heisig story:
Learning this character will take a little doing. Before we start, it is a good idea to keep the key word distinct from melancholy (Frame 663), with which it combines to create the psychological condition of depression (a metaphor based on the hollow or sinking of the material depression we met in Frame 1421). The picture of gloom begins with a small grove of trees, under which we see a crown made out of used tin cans. Next (the lower half of the kanji) we find a combination that appears only a few times in modern characters and only once in those treated in the volumes of Remembering the Kanji. It is composed of a shovel with a sheaf dotted with small drops on all sides. Think of it as a large scoop shovel attached to the front of a bulldozer, whose driver is singing: ♪ "Bulldozing in the sheaves, bulldozing in the sheaves..." ♪ The drops represent the chaff flying about as the sheaves are tossed about by the heavy machinery. There is someone sitting on the ground alongside, watching as the machinery makes its way around the neighboring farmland - and it's you, wearing your tin-can crown. You feel overwhelmed by the impending doom as the invasion of agro-business draws closer and closer to the grove, the only patch of woods that remains of what once was a vast forest. The whole scene represents a re-shaping of the natural environment that brings the heavy weight of gloom down upon you. A bit much, perhaps, but there are enough elements to allow for any number of other combinations.
Koohii stories:
1) [mcbainpc] 26-4-2010(76): I'm depressed that this kanji has 29 strokes.
2) [NeoGlitch] 1-3-2012(49): In the middle of the GROVE you find a TIN CAN. There's a CROWN inside! You are very excited with your finding, but then a figure appears behind you: "Hey, gimme that kid!" You turn back and it's WOLVERINE, with a SHOVEL on his back and all COVERED IN rocksalt (#2866 鹵) "I found that crown in the rocksalt mines over there, so hand it over!" Unless you wanna die, you hand him the crown and he goes away. Then you SIT ON THE FLOOR, feeling impotent, and the SHAPE of your face becomes all GLOOMY ☹ (The 終 !).
3) [chibimizuno] 2-6-2011(22): A popular mnemonic device for this character is: リンカーンはアメリカンコーヒーを３杯飲んだ . Here's how it works: リンカーンは⇒林＋缶＋ワ アメリカンコーヒーを⇒米＋コ＋ヒ ３杯飲んだ⇒ノ＋ノ＋ノ .
4) [Katsuo] 3-11-2009(16): Note: 鬱 and 欝 depressed (#2856 欝) are variants. In such cases it may be easier to use the same keyword, calling the other kanji "keyword (alt)". 鬱 is the more common of the two and is in the new Joyo kanji list.
5) [thecite] 14-11-2009(8): Sulky: let the bottom left 鬯 (rock salt + spoon) = salt shaker: The kid in the restaurant is sulky when the salt shaker and can of coke spills all over his cardboard (wooden) birthday crown, creating a massively shaped sticky puddle all over the floor.