Tag Archives: Japanese

Play on words 朱肉 (shuniku): Mandarin and Japanese

I go and buy a red ink pad (朱肉: shu niku) for my inkan. The characters are also read in Mandarin Chinese as zhu1 rou4 completely meaningless in Chinese but zhu1 rou4 sounds like 豚肉: zhu1 rou4(pork). (The 1 and 4 indicate the tone, 1 high and level and 4 falling. I need a zhu1 rou4 for my inkan, was that a stamp pad or pork?!?!