豚
ぶた
hepburn buta
pig
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 豚肉が好きです。I like pork.
- 豚は賢い動物です。Pigs are intelligent animals.
Collocations
豚 (buta, pig)豚肉 (butaniku, pork)豚カツ (tonkatsu, pork cutlet)豚汁 (tonjiru, pork soup)豚キムチ (butakimuchi, pork kimchi stir-fry)
Mnemonic
豚 buta — onyomi とん (ton): 豚カツ (tonkatsu, breaded pork cutlet), 豚汁 (tonjiru, pork miso soup), 養豚 (youton, pig farming). Tonkatsu was invented in 1899 at Tokyo's 「煉瓦亭」 by adapting Western cutlet into Japanese-style deep frying — exploded postwar, now global. とん is common in compounds; the standalone animal is ぶた. Idiom 豚に真珠 ("pearls before pigs") = giving treasures to those who can't recognize value — parallel to English "pearls before swine" and Korean "pig's neck pearl". Universal cognitive pattern.
Quick check
When and how was 豚カツ invented?