皮
Skin
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| ひ | かわ | 支 + 丿 |
Meaning: Skin
A frog decides to jump down a slide… the problem is that it’s not a water slide (which is another radical). This is a regular slide he jumps down, and as a frog, his skin gets dry easily. As he slides down, his skin gets torn off him, and so he’s a naked, skinless frog when he reaches the bottom.
Pick up the skin and feel it… Does it feel odd? Weird? Rubbery? Really touch it in your mind and remember how it felt. Make sure it’s just the skin, too.
Reading: かわ
We’re going to use the kun’yomi reading as the main reading for this kanji (shhh, dont’ tell the kanji police).
The frog makes it to the bottom of the slide, with no skin. He flies into a 川 (かわ), which is full of skin from all the other animals and frogs that thought it would be a good idea to use this evil slide. So, the frog has to swim through a 川 of skin to get out. Ugh, disgusting. Now imagine this happening to you, too. How disgusting.
Vocabulary
Learn the meanings and readings of the vocab below. In the future, we will run into an on’yomi reading in a word that uses 皮, but when that day comes we’ll worry about it (not now, though).
a 皮（かわ）＝ Skin
- Meaning: The same as the kanji
- Reading: The kun’yomi reading you learned with the mnemonic
a 毛皮（けがわ）＝ Fur, Pelt
- Combo: 毛 (fur) + 皮 (skin)
- Meaning: Fur skin is the kind of thing animals tend to have. That’s fur / a pelt.
- reading: The kun’yomi readings of the two kanji.