What would you choose for your own kanji of the year, and why would you choose it?

Recently, I was reading an Easy Japanese News article about how every year, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation asks everyone to choose one kanji that represents the year. Then the most popular kanji is chosen as this year's "Kanji of the Year".

A monk at Kiyomizu Temple writes the chosen kanji in calligraphy. 

I decided I also want to choose a kanji that represents my experiences of the past year. 

I wanted to write the kanji in calligraphy as well, since I have been wanting to learn shodō (Japanese calligraphy) for a really long time. I plan to finally start learning in the new year of 2023.

My Kanji for the Year 2022

I chose 梅「うめ」(umé). 

As I maybe have said before, there are more kanji than there are species of fishes in the sea, so it was overwhelming to try to choose only 1, but since I’m studying for the next Kanji Proficiency Test (Kanji Kentei), I decided to choose 1 out of the 202 that are in level seven. Choosing 1 out of 202 is still not easy either though. 

There were many that I could see represented this past year.

The first kanji that intuitively came to mind though, was ｢梅｣.

Why I Chose this Kanji

There is really no way for me to get around such a significant life event that happened in 2022, if I am to share my reason with honesty.

A few days ago, on January 5th, I took the day off and visited a large shrine in Kamakura to pray for my little sister who passed away 1 year ago from that day. It was early in the morning of January 5, 2022 that I received the news my sister, age 39, would not survive COVID-19. She passed away not long after.

My family and I all thought she would recover while at the hospital just days before. However, she suddenly went into critical condition in the ICU at the hospital, and there was never a chance to say goodbye.

Approximately a couple months later, there was a Japanese typography exhibition in Kyoto. I also learned there was a Kanji museum in Kyoto and I had just passed my first Kanji Proficiency Test (Kanji Kentei), level 8. I almost didn’t take the test after what happened with my sister, but I knew my sister would want me to keep going.

I took a short solo trip to Kyoto by bus. I enjoyed seeing the typography exhibition and had fun at the Kanji museum. I of course drank lots of matcha too while in Kyoto. 

I realized that it was the season for umé blossoms and looked up recommendations for what shrines or temples to visit. 

It was still the season for hands that feel like ice and layers of thick clothing that make me feel like I move in the way a penguin does. 

Most trees were still bare of any leaves or blossoms. Most trees––but not all of them.

I went to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮). It was a beautiful shrine. I was amazed by the trees I saw near the entrance. I spent time taking photos and looking around, then decided to get a ticket to see the garden area. 

I wasn’t expecting what I experienced.

When I first entered I was offered warm hōjicha which warmed my hands quickly. The air had an euphoric aroma. There were many trees full of blossoms overhanging the pathways throughout the garden. The lighting of the sky was just starting to dim. The various changing colors of the sky reflected on one of the small ponds in the garden.

The candles in clear glass balls hung from all the trees and glowed more and more as the light dimmed.

I walked around for a while under the quiet blossoms, then found a place to sit.

There were also a few torch-like structures with warm fire to sit next to while observing and taking in the experience of these enchanting trees and blossoms. 

I drank an extra cup of warming hōjicha and imagined it was for my sister. 

This poem was written by Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), who loved his umé garden. This poem is difficult to translate into English because of the different ways to read the hiragana (one of the Japanese writing systems) and the flow of the number of characters influencing how it is felt when read.

I felt as if she was there with me in a way, and as I looked out at all the countless white, purple, and pink blossoms on the trees, I wondered how they could bloom like this, before the harshness of winter is gone.