Octopus in Japanese

Where it comes from

The insect radical with a phonetic element. In Chinese it named a long-legged creature; in Japan it came to mean the octopus.

What it carries

Octopus are taken in clay pots sunk on the seabed, a method old enough that Yayoi-period pots survive. Basho wrote of them: "octopus traps — and inside, brief dreams under a summer moon." The tako of takoyaki is this character.