KANJI: BUN MON fumi (literature, writing, text, sentence, style, art, figures, plan)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

Originally written as a pictograph of an intricately patterned overlaid collar (it can still mean stripe or pattern in Chinese). The primary meaning of intricate pattern was eventually extended to writing.

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

on-yomi: BUN MON
kun-yomi: fumi aya kazari fu mo

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: bunnyou

English Definitions:

1. MON: one one-hundreth of a hyakume; crest; figures; (plus all of BUN).
2. BUN: literary text, production, composition; sentence; style; literature, art; civil affairs; decoration; characters; elegance.
3. aya: design; figure of speech; plan, plot.
4. fumi: letter, note.
5. -mon: size (of tabi).

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 2364
Henshall: 68

Unicode Encoded Version:

文

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

文学 (bungaku): literature.
文人 (bunjin): a writer, the literati.
文名 (bummei): literary fame.
文部省 (monbushou): Ministry of Education.

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