若菜

Etymology

Compound of 若 (わか) (waka, “young, new”) + 菜 (な) (na, “greens”).

Pronunciation

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) わ​かな [wáꜜkànà] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
  • (Tokyo) わか​な [wàkáꜜnà] (Nakadaka – [2])^[1]
  • IPA^(key): [ɰᵝa̠ka̠na̠]

Noun

若菜 (hiragana わかな, rōmaji wakana)

1. young greens, shoots
   • 905, Kokin Wakashū, (book 1, poem 21; also Hyakunin Isshu, poem 15)

     君 (きみ)がため春 (はる)の野 (の)に出 (い)でて若 (わか)菜 (な)つむわが衣 (ころも)手 (で)に雪 (ゆく)はふりつつ

     kimi ga tame haru no no ni idete wakana tsumu waga koromode ni yuku wa furitsutsu

     For your sake alone, I went forth to springtime fields and plucked these young greens while snow fell unceasingly onto the sleeve of my robe.^[2]

2. the shoots of the spring 七草 (nanakusa, literally “seven kinds of herbs”)
   1. used to make 七草粥 (nanakusa-gayu, “rice gruel mixed with seven wakana herbs”)
   2. in the days of the medieval Japanese court, mixed with 羹 (atsumono, “fish and vegetable broth”); when eaten, thought to cure all diseases
3. 餅粥 (mochigayu, “rice gruel with mochi”) mixed with the shoots of the spring nanakusa, traditionally eaten on the seventh day of the Japanese New Year

   Synonyms: 七種粥, 七草粥 (nanakusa-gayu), 若菜粥 (wakana-gayu)

Proper noun

若菜 (hiragana わかな, rōmaji Wakana)

1. name for the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters of The Tale of Genji
   1. 若菜上 (Wakana Jō), the thirty-fourth chapter
   2. 若菜下 (Wakana Ge), the thirty-fifth chapter
2. a kyogen play
3. a place name
4. a surname
5. a female given name.

References