102. The "Rice Field" Radical: 田

The world is a chaotic, ever-changing place. Fortunately, the "rice field" radical 田 provides some relief, as it's the model of consistency.

I'm not talking about its definition, though this five-stroke 田 radical almost always means "rice field" or "field" inside characters. 

Rather, I'm referring to its shape. When 田 shapes cluster in characters, they lend a sense of orderliness to the whole visual. It may sound boring to see a bunch of grid shapes, but I find that, on the contrary, they pop out with graphic vividness. 

Here are some examples of what I mean.

Names of the 田 Radical

I've lost myself in the graphic beauty of these grid shapes. Let's return to basic facts about 田.

The Japanese read this radical as た, unless it's on the left side of a kanji. In that case, たへん works, as in these examples: 

町 (57: town)
略 (804: omission)

As you know, the English name of this radical is "rice field," though Nelson prefers "rice paddy."

When 田 Means "Rice Field"

The autonomous kanji 田 (59: rice field) depicts a rice field crossed by ridges and paths, says Henshall.

We also find "rice field" meanings in his etymologies of these two kanji:

画 (85: picture)

This character once had a different shape. In its current form, it represents a "rice field" (the 田 in the middle) combined with the remaining strokes (一 and 凵), which collectively mean "partitioning." The whole character means "to partition fields with a brush," which one would do on a map. That definition extended to "strokes" or "diagram, picture."

番 (196: number)

The top shape used to be 米 (rice). The planting of rice in the fields followed a "set order" and involved working by "roster," which is to say in "turn." Later, "roster" led by association to "guard." (Henshall lists "turn" and "guard" as primary definitions of 番.)

Fields of Something Other Than Rice

In these nine kanji, 田 means "field," but not "rice field," says Henshall:

男 (54: man)
町 (57: town)
界 (240: world)
畑 (369: field)
略 (804: omission)
畝 (1468: ridge in field)
畜 (1577: livestock) 
畔 (1713: ridge between fields)
畏 (1955: awe)

Whereas our radical means "rice field" in just three of the 19 Joyo characters containing 田, this shape represents a generic "field" in exactly half of that set. That's quite a few! One might do better, then, to think of 田 as the "field" radical, but of course the "rice field" meaning comes from the primary definition of the 田 kanji.

Here are Henshall's etymologies for three of the kanji in the list above:

町 (57: town)

This character combines "field" with "nail." The latter shape phonetically expresses "walk" and lends its T shape to suggest "junction of paths." The character originally meant "paths through the fields," extending to "place where fields join," then "area, community."

界 (240: world)

Here we have "field" + "to come between," collectively meaning "division of land," leading to both "boundary" and "area."

畑 (369: field)

This is a kokuji, a kanji invented in Japan. It joins "field" with "fire," producing "field that is burned off," as opposed to a rice paddy.