炭 Charcoal

Radical Combination

• 山

  Mountain
• 厂

  Cliff
• 火

  Fire

Meaning

Primary

Charcoal

Mnemonic

You climb up a mountain and a cliff in search of fire, but all you find is charcoal. You can make fire with the charcoal, but you were hoping to find fire itself. All that climbing for nothing.

Hints

You’re angry that you could only find charcoal so you take the charcoal in your hands and you crush it atop the cliff on the mountain. Feel the charcoal breaking in your hands as the wind carries the charcoal dust off from the top of the cliff on the mountain.

Readings

On’yomi

たん

Kun’yomi

すみ

Nanori

None

Mnemonic

After crushing the charcoal, you decide to take advantage of your current location and lie out in the sun for a while to get a tan (たん). Instead of getting a tan though, you catch on fire. Oops.

Hints

Imagine lying out in the sun next to the crushed charcoal, thinking you’re going to get tan. You’re very surprised when you actually catch on fire. Hot hot hot!