八咫鏡

Japanese
Kanji in this term
八 咫 鏡
や
Grade: 1		 た
Hyōgaiji		 かがみ
Grade: 4
kun’yomi
八咫鏡: Artist's impressions of the (unseen) Imperial Regalia of Japan, with Yata no Kagami on the upper right

Alternative forms

Etymology

Phrase consisting of 八 (ya, “eight”) +‎ 咫 (ata, an ancient unit of circumference) +‎ の (no, possessive particle) +‎ 鏡 (kagami, “mirror”).[1]

The name is a description of the mirror's size. A circle with a diameter of one 尺 (shaku, ancient foot, unit of length) would have a circumference of four ata. A circumference of eight ata would thus mean a mirror with a diameter of two shaku. The shaku at that time was roughly 23 centimeters, so the mirror would have been roughly 46 centimeters across.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

八咫鏡 (hiragana やたのかがみ, rōmaji Yata no Kagami)

  1. the "Eight-Hand Mirror", one of the three sacred treasures comprising the Imperial Regalia of Japan

Usage notes
  • The ata of that time period was around 18 centimeters or 7.25 inches, so note that the hand in the English name is not the same as the four-inch unit of measurement.

See also

References
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
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