郎
male name suffix; counter for sons
Kanji 1936
Thank you for visiting this Character Home Page. Below you'll find a synopsis of the essay. If you wish to read the full text, the PDF of the essay is available for purchase to the right.
This kanji lets us in on the private lives of celebrities such as baseball player Ichiro Suzuki. When a Japanese man's name ends in -郎, it tells us about his family composition! Although 郎 has strong connections to goodness, it helps us deride men as jerks and "bad boys." On the flip side, words such as 太郎 enable us to speak of "the greatest," as in enormously tall trees.
Revision history:
May 28, 2021:
- p. 2: Updated the Henshall etymology.
- p. 10: Added a link to the Kanshudo games.
- p. 12: Slightly revised the explanation of 7ヶ入り in the first photo caption.
Feb. 27, 2015: Revised the photo caption on page 1 quite a bit at the end.
Aug. 16, 2013: Fixed a typo on p. 13. It should have said ステーキハウス (steakhouse), not ステーキホウス.
Sept. 19, 2012: Added 8 photos to pp. 6, 8, and 12–15.
Comments