Got visualizations for kana?

[Buntaro]

Do you have any clever ways to visualize and remember hiragana and katakana? Take them one at a time, and share them with us

あ (hiragana a) is a TV antenna, sticking out of a roof of a house:

http://www.jref.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3039

[GaijinPunch]

Yes, many -- still on this page even. This thread was done last week. 0_o

[lexico]

I guess it wouldn't hurt to go in strict order of the syllabry and come up with VERY GOOD mnemonics.
So why reinvent the wheel ?
1. It was never invented quite right.
2. Like the Japanese conceptualization of civilization, practice makes perfect, and alwasy room for imprvement.
I don't think this is going to be easy, but let me give it a try.

い:

Mnemonic: This is the pictogram of two hands; in English it became an "i."

Folk Origin: The left hand side is the Canaanite-PaleoHebrew "yod," supposedly "a hand," which became the Greek "iota," the Latin "i," the French "i, i-grec," and the English "i, j." It was so small that it was also called a "jot" or a "dot."

Folk Japanification: The Japanese had a better idea then the Canaanites. Every healthy person has two hands, so lets make it more representative. For the two hands, it shall be doubled and written い.

[myjp]

hiraganana ki is a key.

ki - key

:wave:

[lexico]

う is U

Mnemonic: Up on the cliff
The upper stroke is the indication 指事 "top, UE" of the pictogram of a cliff. Top being /ue/, hence the reading "U".

Kanjidict: 上 うえ(ue):- surface, top, upper, upward
Kanjidict: 上 うわ (uwa) (n) (pref): - outer

Altaic connection: Mts. Ural is up there; Lake Aral is down there.
Nihoshoki reading: 上 (okoshi) 下 (aroshi), /o/ is discrepant with /u/, perhaps the vowel shifted from /o/ to /u/?

[forkagentsmith]

the hiragana ke looks like the mouth of a cave and thats how i have remembered that one
o yeah and shi looks like a boob
shi=she=boobs

[pinkkillerkisou]

く is packman eating the little dot thingies on the video game... also helps out with the sound since it looks like coo (like a baby cooing)

See : くooo

[rajs20]

There's a book called Kanji Picto-grafix or something, and it has visualizations for all of the Hiragana and Katakana, plus about 1,000 kanji. It's very well done, imo, the visualizations are very clever and well-illustrated. For kanji, it gives the meanings plus on and kun readings.

[Buntaro]

Here is one for katakana A. I use the English word akimbo. (Yes, that is a word.) It means to put your hands on your hips. When you do, your arms make the exact shape of katakana A.

[Buntaro]

I just thought of this one for hiragana NO (の). You are looking down at the NOrth pole of the earth, spinning its way through space.