銀
Let’s learn Japanese kanji 銀 !
今回の漢字は『銀』です。
銀 - ぎん silver
銀河 - ぎんが galaxy, Milky Way
銀行 - ぎんこう a bank
銀行口座 - ぎんこうこうざ a bank account
銀座 - ぎんざ Ginza, the luxury shopping district in Tōkyō
銀縁 - ぎんぶち silver frames, silver edges
※ 銀杏 - イチョウ the maidenhair tree; ginkgo biloba
水銀 - すいぎん mercury (Hg), quicksilver
銀閣寺 - ぎんかくじ The SIlver Pavilion, temple in Kyoto
P.S. Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa 足利 義政 was arguably the worst shōgun in Japanese history. His inept reign and inability to secure a line of succession resulted in the upheaval of Ōnin War 応仁の乱, Ōnin no Ran, 1466-1477, which started the volatile Sengoku Period 戦国時代, Sengoku Jidai, or Japanese Warring State Period - a period of political instability that tore the country and depleted its resources for almost 150 years.
Never skilled in - or particularly interested in - politics and the art of war, Yoshimasa focused instead on beauty and philosophy, building what would later become Ginkakuji 銀閣寺 - The Silver Pavilion, a quintessentially Japanese, understated wooden retreat on the eastern mountains of Kyoto, overlooking the Kamo river.
You can find out more about Yoshimasa and his special relationship with Ginkakuji in Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan by Donald Keene:
