Japanese for the number ten (10). Written as the kanji character:

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Usually explained as two lines crossing to symbolize the four main directions, which in turn expressed the concept of completeness and by association all the fingers, i.e. ten. However, this is a confused derivation of the characters actual origin. The character originally was derived from a depiction of a sewing needle, and was used purely as a substitute for the more complex character ten:

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           ####    #########
          ## ##    #       #
             ##    ##     ##
             #      #######

... the character hiro (also read, SHUU or JUU) which represents hand with join or using both hands together to represent the concept of ten, as in ten fingers.

The first character, juu, can be read as juu or too (as in the japanese derived counting system, as in: juugatsu (October), tooka (tenth day), juuji (a cross).

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