Mnemonic
"Na!" — an old warrior unsheathes his sword and slashes two wooden signs at the entrance of a village. The villagers freeze. "Na!" he barks again, demanding something in an ancient tongue no one understands. His sword gleams; two cuts, one village silenced.
Additional thoughts
Picture the warrior's archaic shout 'Na!' ringing out as the sword makes exactly two clean cuts. The village setting grounds the scene — a lone swordsman arriving, barking a word lost to time.Quick recall
A warrior's sword makes two slashes at a village gate as he shouts na!Details
The keyword for 那 is na. This kanji historically carried an interrogative sense meaning "what?" or "which?" in classical Chinese, functioning as a question word in archaic texts. Over time, however, its most common modern usage has shifted to serving as a phonetic character, particularly for transliterating foreign sounds, as seen in place names and Buddhist terminology. It is also widely recognized as part of the Japanese reading "na" or "nani" in certain classical contexts, though in contemporary Japanese it appears mostly in proper nouns and set expressions.
- On'yomi
- な、だ
- Kun'yomi
- なに、なんぞ、いかん