Thank you for waiting.
Today's special guest is this character, 和"Harmony"
And, following the last time, we invite 令"Oracle", too.

Toshu-san, Leciel-chan, nice to meet you.
I am 和"Harmony"(*^^)v

Nice to meet you!!

Nice to meet you, Bow-Wow!!

I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations on being selected for the New Era 令和"Reiwa".
I heard that it is already the 20th time.

It seems so.
I didn't count it either, so I was surprised to see it on TV. (^ _ -) - ☆

That's great.
And thank you for coming with 令"Oracle".

{in tears} Hello, Toshu-san, Leciel-chan ～.

令"Oracle", why are you crying?

{with emotion} Because I was selected as one of the "Kanji of the Year" in the first year of 令和"Reiwa", 2019.
Oh, I'm so so sooooo happy. (* ^ ^) v
Let me take this opportunity to thank you all.
Thank you very much.
It has been an unforgettable year since last year as my life has opened up a lot.

It was really good.
Congratulations.

Toshu-san, 令"Oracle" is a very emotional Kanji, and that makes him very charming and wonderful. (^ _ -) - ☆

He is really amazing.
So, 和"Harmony", please introduce yourself.

I was born in the Western Zhou period [1,100 BC to 771 BC] as a Bronze Script of bronze ware.
I'm about 2,800 years old.

Why were you born like this shape?

First, please look at Bronze Script and Shoten.

金文（Bronze Script）

小篆（Shoten）

Huh?
There is one with 口"mouth" on the right and one on the left.

Yes, in the time of Shoten, there was 口"Mouth" on the left, but both of them expressed the same meaning.
Actually, there is also a Chinese character "咊" as the different form of character "和".

異体字"the different form of character" is a character that has the same meaning and pronunciation but has a different form, Ruff-Ruff.
For example, 「万」-「萬」(Man) "ten thousand"、「竜」-「龍」(Ryu)"dragon"、「国」-「國」(Kuni)"country", there are so many, Bow-Wow!

Oh, that's interesting.

Returning to my story, the origin of my shape is the kanji which is a combination of "禾" and "口".
"禾" sometimes means rice, but in my case," "和", it comes from the shape of a sign wood at the military gate".
The word "口" comes from the word (Sai) which means a bowl, and it means to make peace by making a pledge in front of the military gate where (Sai) is placed, and from that comes the meaning of and "Calm Down" and "Soften".

What is the wood to stand at the military gate?
And isn't 口"Mouth" a person's mouth?

It is certainly a little difficult.
A military gate is a place where a military commander is in a war, and you can think of a wood as a sign to stand there.
It was Shirakawa Shizuka sensei who proposed that the word (Sai) comes from the word 口"Mouth" which represents a bowl, that led to the clarification of many things.
Then, please look at the characters after Reisho.

隷書（Reisho）

草書（Sosho）

行書（Gyosho）

六朝楷書（Rikucho-Kaisho）

楷書（Kaisho）

It is already the current kanji character.

Toshu-san, 和"Harmony" is written in both Hiragana and Katakana!
What do you think it is?

Is it 'わ'(wa)?

Correct!
Please take a look.

草仮名（Sogana）

平仮名（Hiragana）

片仮名（Katakana）

By the way... 和"Harmony", are you male or female?

Which do you think I am?

When we were talking, I thought you were a woman at first, but in some places I thought like...huh? you might be a man? So I decided to ask you.

We have no gender in kanji characters.
It's true that there are kanji for gender, such as 女"woman" or 男"man," but there is no gender in kanji.

Oh, I see.
As I live in a binary world, I really want to classify it.

You're right.
But classification is evidence that you are already obsessed with stereotypes and belief systems!
By the way, Toshu-san, what comes to mind when you think of words using 和"Harmony"?

"peace" , "harmony" , or Shotoku-taishi's words : "Harmony is the greatest of virtues."...

They all say good things, don't they?

You're right.
I think "Harmony is the greatest of virtues." really expresses the Japanese people's respect for harmony.
日本風"Japanese things or Japanese way" are also called 和風"Japanese style".

You have a good point.
It makes me so happy.

In a world that is becoming increasingly diverse, you need to live in harmony with people and things, right?
In order to do that, first of all, unless you and your heart are in harmony, you think about things placing others in the center and you cannot think about things placing yourself in the center.

I think you're right, too.
When you look at things from the other person's perspective, in order to be in harmony with others, you end up in a very unbalanced situation where you are not in harmony with your own mind.
I think the time of "harmony" is coming.

I think so, too.
That's why 和"Harmony" was chosen as the new era!

{in an apologetic tone} Toshu-sensei, Excuse me during the hectic discussion.
But the time has come, Ruff-Ruff!!

Is it that time already? Time passed so fast.
Shall we continue next time?

Um, I brought the picture today...??

I'm sorry.
But we won't be able to come back, so could you come again next time?

Can I come again?
It will be a good year to be able to perform three times!

It's going to be a good year. (* ^ ^) v

Oh, 和"Harmony"'s profile is summarized here, so please take a look, Bow-Wow!
Toshu-sensei, please hurry.

Toshu's Kanji House 19th is here.