A quiz of interesting obscure kanji: characters that look easy but are hard to read

Bassist and radio listenerkappamaki
A Kyoto-based bassist who loves radio and ska punk. I mostly inhabit the ani-radio scene, but I’m not a professional. I’m a bit unusual in that I’ve built up my anison knowledge through ani-radio. My love of ska punk centers on Japanese bands. I’ve also worked as a staffer at a music studio. I’m always running around in circles every day.

We’d like to introduce a quiz on difficult-to-read kanji that, despite looking like simple combinations of characters, have tricky readings.

Sometimes the meanings each character carries can lead you to the answer, so the key is how far you can expand your imagination from the kanji.

It also helps you understand the words themselves—such as what kind of history the answer has followed and which aspects were emphasized when the kanji were assigned.

This is a challenge that tests not only broad knowledge of kanji, but also the imaginative skill to arrive at the word from the meanings of the characters.

A quiz on interesting obscure kanji: characters that look easy but are hard to read (11–20)

solar plexus

pigeon and o
nine-tailed fox
pit of the stomach

See the answer

pit of the stomach

“Hagoromo” (mizo-ochi) refers to the hollow just below the sternum where the two ribs meet. In Japan, this is the common term used for that area. Literally, the kanji mean “pigeon’s tail,” which has no real connection to the body part—another reason this word can be tricky.

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In conclusion

I introduced a quiz on difficult-to-read kanji that is simple yet deep. Once you hear the answers, you’ll probably realize they’re all familiar words that we usually imagine being written in hiragana or katakana. Instead of combining the individual readings of each character, these are read as a set with a special pronunciation, so the key is to think from the meaning of each kanji and expand your image from there. If you also look into how these words came to be written with these kanji, it will help you understand the kind of history they have in Japan.