Fūrin (風鈴 - Wind Bell)

Aug 15, 2018 17:58
Fūrin

Three years ago, I wrote an article about 'fūrin' (風鈴 - wind bell).

Today I would like to talk about fūrin in more detail.

'Fū' (風) means "wind" and 'rin' (鈴) means "bell."

Therefore, fūrin is a bell that sounds by taking the wind as the characters indicate.

In the past, fūrin was used as a tool of fortune telling in China.

This was imported to Japan as an amulet tool when the time Buddhism was introduced.

Then, over a long period of time, it has changed to an item that represents summer.
風鈴

約三年前、私は「風鈴」についての記事を書きました。

今日は「風鈴」について、もう少し詳しく紹介します。

「風」は "wind," 「鈴」は "bell" を意味します。

すなわち風鈴とは、風を受けて音が鳴る鈴というわけです。

かつて風鈴は、中国で占いの道具として使われていました。

これが日本に、魔除けの道具として伝わったそうです。

そして長い年月をかけ、夏の風物詩へと変化していったそうです。
No. 1 friendfromfaraway's correction
  • Three years ago, I wrote an article about 'fūrin' (風鈴 - wind bell).
  • This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!
  • Today I would like to talk about fūrin in more detail.
  • This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!
  • Therefore, fūrin is a bell that sounds by taking the wind as the characters indicate.
  • Therefore, fūrin is a bell that sounds by taking in the wind, as the characters indicate.
  • In the past, fūrin was used as a tool of fortune telling in China.
  • In the past, fūrin were used as a tool of fortune telling in China.
     Since ふうりん is being used as a plural here, I changed "was" to "were". After all, I'm assuming there was more than just one furin in China. lol!
  • This was imported to Japan as an amulet tool when the time Buddhism was introduced.
  • They were imported to Japan as amulets against (evil/misfortune) around the time Buddhism was introduced.
  • Then, over a long period of time, it has changed to an item that represents summer.
  • Then, over a long period of time, they have changed to an item that represents summer.
     "...that represents summer" -- some other ways of saying this are,
    "that exemplifies summer",
    "that embodies everything about summer"
    "that reminds people of summer"
If someone's mom rang a 風鈴、would it be a 風鈴母さん?(風林火山)

(すみません、ダジャレなんだよ!)
friendfromfaraway
In English, a bell like this is usually called a wind "chime" (chime is a word used for the sound of a bell ringing) :)
Toru
Thank you so much for the corrections!

Haha, 風鈴母さん sounds interesting.
Yes, when hearing the term, Japanese people probably image someone's mother who rings a wind chime frequently.
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