Saka and Zaka

Tokyo is a city of hills (saka). In my neighborhood every hill has a post and the name and its origin are written on it. When I read them, I learn something like “on this hill there used to be a residence of samurai who had the same name as the hill”. It is interesting to me.

Non-Japanese often point out that “every hill has a name even though many streets in Tokyo don’t have one.”

Actullay if you live in Japan, you probably know some of street names or bridge names in your town. If you live in central Tokyo, you likely have heard “Meiji doori”, “Aoyama doori” or “Nihon bashi”.

And when you make your own sentences, you might say, “kono doori o migi ni magaru” (Turn right on this street.) or “ano bashi o watarou” (Let’s cross that bridge.) In fact they are not right.

• street, road: toori (Nod “dori”)

• bridge: hashi (Not “bashi”)

Therefore, the following sentences are correct:

kono toori o migini magaru.

ano hashi o watarou.

When a proper noun is put in front of “toori” or “hashi”, the pronunciation of their kanji changes to “meiji doori” or “nihon bashi”.

Let’s have a look at other examples like this.

1. When a word is preceded by a proper noun, the first leteer fo the word takes on voiced consonant makrs. (There are exceptions to this rule.)

   ・saka → zaka (example: Fujimi zaka)

   ・kawa → gawa (example: Sumida gawa)

2. When a word is preceded by a porper noun, the pronunciation of the kanji for the word changes from the kun-yomi (Japanese reading) to the on-yomi (Chinese reading). (There are exceptions to this rule.)

   ・yama (mountain) → san (example: Fuji san)

   ・mizuumi (lake) → ko (example: Yamanaka ko)

   ・shiro (castle) → jo (example: Osaka jo)

So, if you say “senshumatsu ko ni itta.” (I went to a ko last weekend.) or “Osaka de jo o mita.” (I saw a jo in Osaka.), Japanese people hearing this would be like “???”. The correct sentences are “senshumatsu mizuumi ni itta.” and “Osaka de shiro o mita.”

Moreover, many non-Japanese have an interesting understanding of Mt. Fuji (Fuji san). The san in Fuji san is the Chinese pronuciation of 山 (yama), but those who don’t know kanji sometimes confuse that san with the san that we put after someone’s name. Sometimes they say, “Fuji san is an important mountain to Japanese people, so you call it Fuji san to pay it respect, don’t you?” But , this is not the reason.