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The Origin of Katakana

Last week, we briefly looked at the origin of kanji, the Japanese character set that was acquired from Chinese writing. One thing of note is that kanji characters have multiple possible pronunciations and meanings depending on the context within which they are used. Some of the possible pronunciations were adopted from the Chinese pronunciation of the characters, and others came from the Japanese language pronunciation of the words that the characters represent.

A very simple example is the kanji character for the number one, 一, the simplest of all kanji characters. By itself and when it is used to mean the number one, it is pronounced ichi. That pronunciation is its on'yomi or Chinese-derived sound. Another on'yomi for the same character is itsu, meaning "when." When Japanese opt to use the traditional native-language word for the number one--its kun'yomi--its pronunciation becomes hito. However, hito is rarely used alone like that. Along with it is a suffix that answers the question, "One of what?" If it is one object or thing, it is 一つ (hitotsu). If it is one person, it is 一人 (hitori). As said above, this is a simple example. Remember, there are thousands of kanji characters.

This complexity led Buddhist monks in the 9th century to create a shorthand way of writing to make it easier to read documents through annotations for pronunciation and grammatical purposes. A simplified set of parts of kanji characters were assigned sounds from the Japanese spoken language, creating the phonetic katakana syllabary. The literal meaning of katakana is fragmentary kana. The chart below shows the sources for the katakana characters. In each box, the katakana character is on the left and the source kanji character is on the left.

Katakana usage expanded to government documents, official communications, academic papers, and, later on, scientific papers. The angular appearance of its characters was thought to be stronger, more masculine than the rounder shapes of the hiragana syllabary that had been created around the same time. (More on hiragana next week.) Today, katakana usage is primarily for loan words from foreign languages, new words in Japanese, and onomatopoeia.

This chart shows the basic katakana syllabary along with guides for how to write the characters. For the full katakana syllabary along with how to pronounce the characters, see Written Japanese: Kanji, Gojūon, and Rōmaji in Resources. 

Buildings

There are all sorts of buildings, and I'm pretty sure you have a fair idea of what buildings in general are like. Because of that, I decided to focus narrowly on a specific type of building; castles. Even then, there is a lot of variety to choose from. To keep it simple, the photos below are only of castle exteriors. I tried to find some of the more picturesque ones.

Starting off with European castles, here is Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome near the Vatican City.

Completed in 137 AD, it began as a tomb for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family. It has served as a fortress and a luxuriant residence for Popes. There is a hidden passageway connecting it to the Vatican. It is used as a museum today.

Conwy Castle in Conwy, Wales was built by England's Edward I, during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1287. UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe."

Castle Rock, in Scotland, an elevated geologic structure near Edinburgh, has hosted human occupation since prehistoric times. It is currently occupied by Edinburgh Castle which was built around 1103 AD. The castle has played an important role in Scottish history. It also has the dubious distinction of being "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world."

Technically, Mont Saint-Michel isn't a castle, but it is often regarded as one. It certainly looks imposing. It was built on a tidal island in Normandy, France in the 8th century as a religious monastery.

Portugal's Pena Palace was built in the 19th century by King Ferdinand II of Portugal on the site of a former monastery that had been destroyed by an earthquake. The king participated in specifying some of its more fanciful elements. It was a summer residence of the royal family. Years later, it was acquired by the Portuguese government.

Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the foothills of the Alps near the border with Austria. It is the tallest castle in the world. Ludwig built it with his own funds to be a retreat. Construction began in 1869, but it was never fully completed.

The castle has been open to tourists since 1886. Walt Disney visited there with his wife in the mid-1950s. Elements of its fanciful design captivated him and influenced the final design for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Another one of Disney's castles, the Cinderella Castle in Florida's Magic Kingdom at Disney World, has a similar design but on a much larger scale.

Besides Disney's castles, America has castles, too. Sort of. They are generally not on nearly as grand a scale as Europe's castles, but their appearance can be pretty imposing. Probably the grandest is Hearst Castle in California's central coast in San Simeon. Hearst named it La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill). It, too, has never been completed, but the 115-room castle, now a California State Park, is a popular tourist attraction. Tour reservations are recommended.

Hearst Castle aside, by the usual American standards, Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, Texas, at 19,082 square feet, is pretty imposing. This 1892 Victorian-style building was originally built for Walter Gresham, a Civil War general and government servant. In 1923, it was purchased by the Archdiocese of Galveston and was its headquarters for four decades. It is open to tourists today.

Scotty's Castle located in Death Valley National Park is technically not a castle, though it has long been called one. It was built by Chicago millionaire Albert Mussey Johnson when he needed to move to a dry environment for his health. Construction of the house on Johnson's ranch began in 1922. Johnson became friends with a con man and character named Walter Scott after whom the "castle" is named. Scott was allowed to live there until his death in 1954.

Scotty's Castle suffered damage from a flood in 2015, after which it was closed to tourists. It is currently expected to reopen for tours by the end of this year.

A place that really stretches the definition of a castle is Montezuma Castle, located in Central Arizona's Verde Valley. Built by the Sinagua people between 1100 and 1300 AD, it is a 5-story, 20-room cliff dwelling. It was abandoned around 1400. Its name is fanciful. It never had anything to do with the historical Montezuma. 

Japan has castles, too. Perhaps the best known is Ōsaka Castle (Ōsaka-jō). 

The building shown below is only the central keep of a much larger 15-acre complex. It has five levels on the outside but eight on the inside. The exterior façade hides the interior complexity. The castle was originally built in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ended a century of civil war in 1582, unifying Japan. Over the years, the castle has suffered damage several times. Its latest reconstruction was completed in 1997 based on the early Edo Period design, except that modern materials were used and elevators were installed. The interior is a museum today.

The main tower of Okayama Castle, the next photo, is black. That is the reason for its nickname, Crow Castle. The original castle was completed in 1587. It was destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II. The castle that exists today is a reconstruction that was completed in 1966. Okayama Castle is the model for my demonstration painting this week.

Himeji Castle is another feudal-era castle with roots this time reaching back to 1333. The central keep that exists there today was completed in the 1600 to 1609 time period. The entire castle complex consists of 83 buildings. During World War II, a fire bomb landed on the top floor of the keep but failed to explode. There has been some restoration work done on the castle, but it is essentially the same structure that has existed there for centuries. Because of the bright white exterior, the keep is nicknamed White Egret or White Heron Castle.

Artwork

Tsuchiya Koitsu (1870 - 1949)

Koitsu was a print artist who initially focused on scenes from the first Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895). He later turned to landscapes, many of which had urban elements. He was a prominent shin-hanga (new prints) artist. His Nagoya Castle print was produced in 1937.