公園

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 公園で犬と遊んだ。▶ —
   I played with the dog at the park.
2. 近所の公園は桜が綺麗だ。▶ —
   The neighborhood parks cherry blossoms are beautiful.

Collocations

Mnemonic

こうえん — 公園, Sino-Japanese. Unpack the two characters: 公 (public) + 園 (garden) = 'a public garden'. The Korean reading gongwon lines up character for character. What 公園 means in Japan's city landscape — in spring it becomes the seat of o-hanami at the cherry-blossom peak — Ueno Park, Shinjuku Gyoen, Chidorigafuchi. Since the 1956 City Park Act, more than 50,000 parks have been organised across the country, down to the neighbourhood 児童公園 (children's park). You meet these characters again in Mandarin Roots, as 公 and 園.

Quick check

1. Meaning of kouen debyuu?

   • 1990s neologism for a new mothers first greeting to the neighborhood park mother group — a uniquely Japanese post-birth social rite of passage
   • A childs first park visit
   • Graduation ceremony
   • Tourism term