Happiness

おはようございます。Sharaです。

It's been awhile since I post up something that isn't a translation here (laughs)

It's about something that I recently learned while looking up references for translation work, though. That is, precisely what the title say: on the Japanese kanji for the word 'happiness'.

If you try to google translate the word for happiness, it'll result in '幸福' (koufuku), followed with another suggestion '幸せ' (shiawase). You'll notice that koufuku contains 幸, and this is precisely the reason 'koufuku' is translated as 'happiness'. The other kanji that forms 'koufuku', 福, simply means 'good fortune' and, well, having good fortune sure makes you happy, right? (laughs)

Anyway, it's about the kanji 幸.

You know, Japanese has a lot of similar-looking kanji. For this 幸 kanji, it's said that it mostly looks similar to the kanji 辛. Notice that 幸 has an extra horizontal line when compared to 辛.

By the way, 辛 means 'spicy' and 'bitter'. Two meanings, because it can also be read in two ways. First is 'tsurai', which means 'bitter', 'painful'... anyway, it represents a difficult situation or feeling. The other meaning is 'karai', which refers to the taste 'spicy'. Both is written '辛い', which can confuse you when you don't understand the context of the sentence that uses it (laughs)

Anyway. The way these two kanji looks similar, don't it makes you question whether there's a meaning behind it?

For me, I initially thought of it as something like this:

If you have never experienced difficulties (辛い) in life, then you won't understand the concept of happiness (幸せ).

Though, when I tried to look it up, turns out that the two kanji has nothing to do with each other (laughs)

They just happen to look similar when people of the past turns hieroglyphs into kanji. Also, I read that the kanji 幸 actually was drawn to represent handcuffs, and carries the meaning 'people that manages to escape from getting handcuffed feels happiness'. I don't get how does that looks like a handcuff though.

Also, while looking it up some more, I found something else.

'Shiawase' can also be written with another kanji that also looks similar: '倖'. Its only difference with '幸' is the addition of ninben (radical that represents 'person') that stands next to it. According to the answer of this Japanese version of Yahoo! Answer, it means:

If 幸せ refers to the happiness that one experiences alone, then 倖せ, which has the ninben next to 幸, may represents happiness that is shared with someone else.

Wonderful, isn't it?

... Really, although during my early college life I feel that kanji is such a hassle, when I try to learn it this way, I find it really fascinating.

There are so many more similar-looking kanji, and they may be understood by relating things like this. Hope that you readers can also find enjoyment in learning it in this fun way!