For those of you who have been studying Japanese for a while, you’ll know that kanji can be wildly different. Sometimes, a kanji character stands alone, like 1月(January) or 1時 (1 o’clock). These simple kanji are some of the most approachable, and I truly appreciate them.
Then, there’s the realm of 熟語 (a word made of two or more kanji). It’s a kanji combination, or what I like to call a kanji zord. Today, we’re jumping right into the realm of four kanji compounds known as 四字熟語.
These four kanji compounds, excluding the name of places, often embody idiomatic phrases rooted in historical Japanese context. Like English idioms, these compounds compress profound meanings into short phrases. You’ll often find four kanji compounds used in Japanese newspaper headlines and television to depict a specific event or scene. It isn’t easy at first, but the more you study, the faster you’ll get in.
With that introduction behind us, let’s explore some popular Japanese four-kanji compounds.
Ten Men, Ten Colors
Simple but deep, we have 十人十色. Breaking down the four kanji into pairs, we have 十人, meaning “ten people,” and 十色, meaning “ten colors.” So literally, the idea is that if you have ten people together, you might get ten different colors that everybody likes. Or “different strokes for different folks,” as they say.
Here are some examples:
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
| みんなが食べたいのは十人十色だ | Minna ga tabetai no ha juunin toiro da. | What everyone wants to eat is different. |
| 人の生き方は十人十色だ | Minna ga tabetai no ha juunin toiro da. | Everybody’s way of living is different. |
| オーケストラの人々が普段聴く音楽のジャンルは十人十色だ | Okesutora no hitoboto ga fudan kiku ongaku no janru ha juunintoiro da. | People in the orchestra listen to different kinds of music. |
Killing Two Birds With One Stone
Next, we have 一石二鳥. This phrase is quite similar to its English counterpart. We can divide this into two pairs of kanji components like the previous four kanji combinations. Specifically, 一石 means “one stone,” while 二鳥 signifies “two birds.” I.e., “Killing two birds with one stone.” It seems birds can’t catch a linguistic break anywhere in the world.
Here are some sample sentences using 一石二鳥:
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
| パーソナルトレーナーとして働くのは一石二鳥だね。 | Paasonaru toreena toshite hataraku no ha isseki nichou da ne. | Working as a personal trainer is like killing two birds with one stone. |
| 外食やめたらお金が貯まって痩せれた。一石二鳥だ。 | Gaishoku wo yametara, okane ga tamatte yasereta. Iseeki nichou da. | When I stopped eating out, I saved money and lost weight. I killed two birds with one stone. |
| 効率がよく、一石二鳥的なやりかたはないのかな？ | Kouritsu yoku, issekinichouteki na yarikata ha nai no kana? | Isn’t there an efficient, kill-two-birds-with-one-stone kind of way of doing things? |
Trial and Error
Then you get a lot of literal strokes with 試行錯誤. This one can also be split into two sets of kanji components. The initial half of the four kanji combination is 試行, meaning “to attempt” or “trial run.” The latter half, 錯誤, literally translates to “mistake” or “discrepancy.” Hence, the combined meaning becomes “trial and error.”
Here are some examples:
| Japanese | Romaji | English |
| この商品が試行錯誤した結果 | Kono shoushin ga shikousakugo shita kekka da. | This product is the product of trial and error. |
| 試行錯誤繰り返せばいつかは必ず成功する！ | Shikousakugo kurikaeseba itsuka ha kanarazu seikou suru! | If you keep repeating trial and error, eventually, you’ll succeed. |
| 化粧品開発で一番時間がかかるのはやっぱり試行錯誤の段階だね | Keshouhin kaihatsu de ichiban jikan ga kakaru no ha yappari shikousakugo no dankai da ne. | The step that takes the longest in developing cosmetics is the trial and error step. |
I think that’s enough of the four kanji compounds for today. Hopefully, your eyes have been opened to a whole new world of studies, and you can start seeing clusters of kanji not as your enemy but as your friends here to help you understand Japanese better.
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