The Mysteries of Miso: Part 3
Friday, October 17th, 2008
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It often seems that food is the best entryway into learning Japanese. Without even taking a Japanese class, most of us know words such as sushi, tempura, miso, and so on. Ah, but do you really know all there is to know about miso? Here’s the word in the way you already know it:
味噌 (miso: fermented bean paste) tasty food + boisterous
味噌汁 (miso shiru: miso soup) miso (1st 2 chars.) + soup
Because miso is usually white (shiro, 白), I always want to call this miso shiro. (Plus, that rhymes.) Maybe it would help to associate this shiru with the verb “to know” (shi(ru), 知), using the mnemonic, “If you knew miso like I know miso …” For young’uns who don’t know the reference, it’s from a 1925 song that sometimes includes this lyric: “You’ll get woozy, after just one day with Susie.”
In these cases, 味噌 has a literal, food-related meaning. But that’s not true of the following type of 味噌:
味噌 (miso: key (main) point)
Hope you don’t mind if I cease to define the individual kanji in 味噌 each time they show up. It’s best to view this ateji term holistically.
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 1 Comment »
