Japanese | Word of the Day

Wassup guys,

Its time for yet another addition of random Japanese words to learn. It was a bit difficult to settle on any one paticular word but I eventually settled on a food item this time around. I will be celebrating my birthday with Yui over the weekend by eating a dish that isn't necessarily unique to Japan, but is in stark contrast to what is available in America; 馬刺し/ばさし/basashi・horse-meat sashimi. First of all, sashimi is thin sliced cuts of raw meat; typically fish or crustaceans.

However, in the context of today's word, it quite obviously refers to horses. I should also point out that chicken sashimi also exist here as well(I've eaten it, but I'm not a fan). Anyway, lets breakdown these kanji.
馬刺し

• 馬/ば/ba*:horse
• 刺し/さし/sashi**: pierce, stab, prick

I think this compound is really straightforward, but perhaps I can help you all draw a mental image of what to see when observing these kanji; specifically "刺し". We can break  "刺" into two parts, left・へん (hen) and right・つくり (tsukuri). On the right, we have the radical 「⺉」, which is derived from the kanji 「刀・sword」. On the left, we have two different radicals, 「巾・cloth」 and 「木・tree」. Unfortunately, the combination of a cloth hanging from a tree might not mean much at first glance, but in order to fix a cloth to a tree, your presumably must stab it through with a sword/knife; thus we get a generalized understanding of the whole kanji  "刺".
*Beware: The pronunciation of this kanji may change based on context.
**This word was originally a verb(さす/sasu) converted into a noun(さし/sashi), thus creating the compound word we see above.

Thats about it for todays word. Have you ever eaten raw meat? Fish or otherwise? Would you be willing to try 馬刺し? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, like and share this post~

Until next time,
Peace