巻
Mnemonic
A samurai unsheathes his blade and discovers a snake tightly coiled around it. He peels the snake off and realizes it has flattened into a perfect scroll, ancient text spiraling along its scales. He reads the snake-scroll and learns a forbidden technique.
Additional thoughts
Picture the snake's body literally unrolling like parchment, scales becoming paper with ink characters. The coiling motion of a snake mirrors how a scroll winds up.Quick recall
A samurai peels a coiled snake off his sword — it unfurls into a scroll.Details
The keyword for 巻 is scroll. This kanji refers to something that is rolled or wound up, like a scroll of paper or parchment. It conveys the idea of rolling, winding, or coiling, and by extension can refer to a volume or chapter of a book, since ancient texts were written on scrolls. The sense of wrapping or curling around something is central to its meaning.
- On'yomi
- かん、けん
- Kun'yomi
- ま.く、まき、ま.き