2023年12月4日（月）
乙
訓：おと-、きのと
音：おつ、いつ
英：the latter, duplicate, strange, witty
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Well, since it came up, I thought I might as well do this one today. I’ve only really ever seen this in contracts between two parties (A and B) - like between a tenant and a letting agent.
2023年12月5日（火）
襟
訓：えり
音：きん
英：collar, neck, lapel, one’s inner feelings
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OK, so I decided to swerve to something totally different today after having done a fair few characters with relatively few strokes, so I decided to do one with 18 today. I like writing kanji with 林 in them.
2023年12月6日（水）
暢
訓：のび.る
音：ちょう
英：stretch
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I thought I’d go with a pretty outdated one today - most of you probably haven’t seen this one before, so here you are!
It’s very cool how in the 草書 version you can clearly see a 「ゆ」and 「タ」shape appear. Seeing these interesting Kanji drawn in cursive forms is always a delight.
Also, I was scrolling through your past characters and I didn’t notice 優、and was wondering what it would look like in the different cursive forms, as I found myself writing it out today in one of my example sentences. If you have time to draw it out, I would love to see what they look like!
I’ll do it tomorrow. 
2023年12月7日（木）
攝
訓：おさ.める、かね.る、と.る
音：せつ、しょう
英：surrogate, act in addition to
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OK I thought I’d go off on the deep end today and do a 21-stroke character that I have literally never seen used. Enjoy!
素晴らしい! Seeing those three ears evolving into a single line is quite something!
This thread is a real delight! I’ve always been interested in kanji in itself and calligraphy as a form of art but I’m afraid it may be quite difficult to find a good 書道の先生 around here. Seeing the daily 草書 version makes me really want to try and go for it!
いつもありがとうございます、マットさん!
きへん？
@momizi
Yes, contrary to what a lot of people think, きへん is different to 木.
きへん
木
Notice that with きへん, the strokes don’t stretch as far out on the right as they do on the left. The left side can stretch out to the bottom left but the strokes on the right side should be level.
2023年12月6日（金）
優
訓：やさ.しい、すぐ.れる、まさ.る
音：ゆう、う
英：tenderness, excel, surpass, actor, superiority, gentleness
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This one comes up quite regularly in my calligraphy assignments (it’s not difficult wo understand why) and I always get the balance of the very simple 人偏 mixed up with the complicated 憂 and I’m never that pleased with the balance when I write it. Anyway, thanks for the request!
Thanks for showing us! It looks really difficult to find enough room to fit both the 心 and
夂 in the very bottom, but I think you did a really good job! Keep up the good work!
2023年12月9日（土）
忘
訓：わす.れる
音：ぼう
英：forget
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Sorry I’m late with this one. I had work yesterday morning followed by two year-end parties (忘年会), so I decided to go with this one.
2023年12月10日
会
訓：あ.う、あ.わせる、あつ.まる音：かい、え英：meeting, meet, party, association, interview, join
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Well, after yesterday’s two year-end parties, I decided to do this one too!
2023年12月11日（月）
有
訓：あ.る
音：ゆう、う
英：possess, have, exist, happen, occur, approx
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Pay close attention to the stroke order on this one. When ナ is above, the stroke order is decided by what is underneath it. The first stroke of 月 is vertical, so the first stroke of ナ goes from top to bottom. If it were different, for example 工 in 左, the horizontal stroke of ナ would be first.
Useful information! I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that pattern before. Maybe as I continue my own Kanji writing journey, it’ll become more clear to me.
今日もお疲れ様でした！
2023年12月12日（火）
又
訓：また、また-、また.の
音：ゆう
英：or again, furthermore, on the other hand
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A nice simple one for you today - I really like the 草書 version of this one.
Hi all,
I’m really glad that there are some of you who are appreciating this thread and joining in. I didn’t think it would last, but it’s still getting a nice number of replies, so thank you very much.
I’m going to the UK on Saturday, so I won’t be posting between Sunday and early January. If anyone has any ideas on what might be appropriate characters for the end of the year, please let me know!
2023年12月13日（水）
宿
訓：やど、やど.る、やど.す
音：しゅく
英：inn, lodging, relay station, dwell, lodge, be pregnant, home, dwelling
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I enjoy writing ウ冠 for some reason.
ANNOUNCEMENT: KANJI OF THE YEAR
税
音：ぜい
英：tax, duty
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The kanji of the year has been officially announced in Kyoto. I was very surprised at this year’s selection, firstly because I assumed it would be something generally positive, but also because it’s the second time this kanji has been selected in the past decade - the last time being in 2014. The kanji came in as a clear winner with 5,976 votes out of 147,878. The second place was 暑, because we had a particularly hot summer this year. The chief monk of Kiyomizu Temple made the announcement by writing the character with a large brush on Tuesday just after 2pm. Last year’s selection was 戦.
