KANJI: KYOU KEI KIN miyako (capital, ten quadrillion)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

Popularly but incorrectly explained as coming from a pictograph of a stone lantern at the gate of the emperor's palace in the capital. This character actually derives from a pictograph of a noble's house upon a hilltop. In ancient China nobles generally lived on hilltops, with commoners on the flatland. Because nobles spent much of their time in the capital (to be near the emperor), the idea of the place where nobles lived is felt to have eventually becomed associated with the capital itself. As evidence of this theory, the character may still mean height in modern Chinese.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: KYOU KEI KIN
kun-yomi: miyako

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: taka

English Definitions:

1. KEI: ten quadrillion (10¹⁶).
2. KYOU: capital; metropolis; ten quadrillion (10¹⁶); Kyoto.
3. miyako: capital; metropolis.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 93
Henshall: 99

Unicode Encoded Version:

京

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

東京 (toukyou): Tokyo.
京女 (kyouonna): Kyoto woman.
京浜 (keihin): Tokyo and Yokohama.
京葉 (keiyou): Tokyo and Chiba.

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