162. The "Movement" Radical: 辶 and 辶

Photo Credit: Kevin Hamilton

A sign about how to handle a narrow road contains these words:

道幅 (みちはば: width of a road)
狭し (せまし: narrow), shown in an archaic form rather than 狭い
速度 (そくど: speed)
落とす (おとす: to let fall, shown here in the imperative form)

In other words, the road is narrow, so slow down. But how can you do that when two "movement" radicals act here as engines?!

Photo Credit: Eve Kushner

As you can see on this lantern on Sado Island (northwest of Honshu), the calligraphic forms of the "movement" radical and the "water" radical 氵 can look similar.

The characters featured here are 近江屋 (おうみや), combining 近江 (おうみ: name of an old province in what is today Shiga Prefecture on Honshu) and 屋 (や: store).

By the way, the "movement" radical also looks like one other:

radical 54: the "long stride" radical, 廴

Both have three strokes and are on the left sides of characters. Furthermore, both indicate movement. Their Japanese names are even similar; one reads 廴 as いんにょう or えんにょう.  The えん comes from the on-yomi of 延 (の•びる: stretching), which features this radical. Because 廴 appears in this kanji, some people refer to it as the "stretching" radical.

Photo Credit: Opqr

This sign on Sado Island contains three kanji with "movement" radicals, which makes sense, as it's about driving.

The top part is 交通安全 (こうつうあんぜん: traffic safety), which contains 通 (176). This kanji has quite a few meanings, but the relevant one here is "to pass through."

Then we find these words:

追越し (おいこし: overtaking)
違反 (いはん: violation (of law))
9,000円 (きゅうせんえん: 9,000 yen)

That is, there's a 9,000-yen fine for overtaking cars in areas where that’s prohibited. This definitely seems to issue a stern warning to reckless drivers. However, the next line introduces something you don't normally see on signs from the police department:

佐渡 (さど: name of island)
するめ (鯣: dried squid, where 鯣 is non-Joyo)
500円 (ごひゃくえん: 500 yen)

This indicates that whereas a traffic violation is really expensive, dried squid on Sado is relatively cheap! So if you avoid a fine, you can save 9,000 yen, which will buy you a lot of squid!

Anyway, 追 (350: to chase, pursue, follow) and 違 (1006: to differ; violate) share our radical. The former one combines it with what is almost certainly the representation of a "person's rear," says Henshall, noting that 追 means "to move in pursuit of a person."

He defines the right side of 違 as "opposed feet," saying that it acts phonetically here to express "to part from" and "to move away." Thus, 違 means "to move away from something," which extends to "to differ."

If one kanji has us in hot pursuit and the other is moving away, it's a wonder they ended up in the same sign!

Photo Credit: Eve Kushner

In this sign in a shop in Narita Airport, the words break down as follows:

雑誌 (ざっし: magazine)    
立ち読み (たちよみ: reading while standing (in a bookstore, etc.))
他 (ほか: other)
お客様 (おきゃくさま: customers)
迷惑 (めいわく: trouble, bother)
遠慮 (えんりょ: declining, refraining)

The notice translates as "Reading the magazines while standing bothers other customers, so please refrain." I doubt that a quiet act of reading would truly disturb other patrons, but it would certainly annoy the store owner on two counts. First, the browsers probably have no intention of buying anything. Second, they may block other customers from reaching the magazine stand.

How great, by the way, to have a word for "standing still and reading"!

Anyway, the sign is about stasis, and yet it contains two instances of the "movement" radical: 迷 (797: perplexed) and 遠 (79: distant).

Henshall says that in 迷, the 米 acts phonetically to represent "uncertainty," so it combines with the radical to mean "uncertain movement." That's what happens when one is lost or perplexed.

As for 遠, the 袁 part means "long kimono" but acts phonetically here to express "long," says Henshall. "Long movement" is much the same as "distance," he notes.

Photo Credit: Kevin Hamilton

For something fixed in a wall, this sign has a great deal of movement! Here's what I mean. The first word is 送水口 (そうすいこう: water supply pipe inlet-outlet). In the second line we find 連結 (れんけつ: connection), 送水管 (そうすいかん: water main), and -用 (-よう: use, for). All of this indicates that this is the place a firefighter would attach a fire hose.

In addition to an abundance of water, we have a good supply of 辶, as three of the characters (one-third of them!) contain this radical. I'm referring to 送 (331: to send) and 連 (231: to carry).

Photo Credit: Eve Kushner

This stone contains just one instance of the "movement" radical, so clearly it has no power to go anywhere! Here's what it says:

世界 (せかい: world)
遺産 (いさん: heritage)
日光 (にっこう: name of a town in Tochigi Prefecture on Honshu)
社寺 (しゃじ: shrines and temples), a very cool word!

The kanji with "our" radical is 遺 (808: to leave behind (at death)), which has a "noble" interior, 貴 (834: noble).