鹿

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deer

On-Yomi: ロク — Kun-Yomi: しか、か

Elements:

deer, cave, antlers, compare, spoon, sitting on the ground, spoon2, sitting on the ground2

Heisig story:

Drawn on the walls of a complex of caves near Niaux in southern France are a number of animal likenesses dating from the Upper Paleolithic period. Among them we find pictures of deer, some of them showing men in deer masks. By comparing their drawings to real deer, Stone Age people hoped to acquire power over the animal in the hunt; and by comparing themselves to the deer, to take on that animal's characteristics. But time has locked with a "double-key" (the extra stroke through the element for key) the real secret of this art form from us, and we can only surmise such meanings. But more important than the enigmas of the troglodytic mind is the way in which caves, a double-key, and comparing gives us the kanji for deer.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive, this kanji is abbreviated much the same as the tiger was: the lower element is dropped to leave room for a replacement. Its meaning, however, remains the same. There are a very few cases (see frame 2158) in which there is no abbreviation. When this happens, we may keep the image suggested by the above explanation: painting of a deer.

Koohii stories:

1) [synewave] 1-5-2007(300): Bambi wanders into a cave and sees a side order of salad and 2 spoons…but what's the main course?

2) [CharleyGarrett] 26-4-2007(37): Santa's reindeer, Rudolf, opens a nightclub in a cave. It's popular with all the deer and reindeer in the world. The cave speciality is a salad w/ dressing on the side. There is no other deer club that can compare. How many other deer nightclubs are there?

3) [gavin.schultz-ohkubo] 29-11-2010(23): See book. No, don't. :P.

4) [RoboTact] 1-9-2007(16): This is a deer from the Old West. Just compare it to European kind.

5) [Stian] 2-9-2012(14): Congratulations, you can now spell バカ with kanji; 馬鹿 . ;).

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