Kanji: 宿 題 建 寺 絵

1. Vocabulary List

2. Kanji Breakdown

宿 — Inn / House

宿 can hold 100（百）people（イ）under its roof（宀）.

題 — Topic / Subject

The radical of 題 is 頁 ("leaf"). On the left: 日（daily）+ 正（correct）— you write correct answers daily in your homework（宿題）.

建 — Build

The radical of 建 is 廴 ("long stride"). The right side has 5 horizontal strokes — imagine the floors of a building.

寺 — Buddhist Temple

The radical of 寺 is 寸 (an old unit = the width of one finger). When てら appears in a temple name, it often shifts to でら via rendaku.

Famous temples:

法隆寺（ほうりゅうじ）was built in AD 607 — the oldest wooden building in the world. It has survived earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater 46 times.

絵 — Picture / Painting

When different colours of thread（糸）meet（会）, they make a beautiful picture（絵）.

3. Grammar & Sentences

• 先週金かく寺に行きました。(Senshuu Kinkakuji ni ikimashita.) — I went to Kinkaku-ji last week.
• かなさんは絵が上手です。(Kana-san wa e ga jouzu desu.) — Kana is good at painting.
• ほうりゅう寺は日本で一番古い建物です。(Houryuuji wa Nihon de ichiban furui tatemono desu.) — Houryu-ji is the oldest building in Japan.
• 今日の宿題は、お寺の絵をかくことです。(Kyou no shukudai wa, otera no e wo kaku koto desu.) — Today's homework is drawing a temple.
• おもしろい話題。(Omoshiroi wadai.) — Interesting topic.

4. Learning Context

• 宿 vs 題 compounds: Both appear in 宿題 — 宿 contributes "lodging/place to stay" and 題 contributes "subject/topic." The compound literally means "a topic to work on at home."
• 建てる vs 建物: 建てる (verb: to build) uses the kun-reading た. 建物 (noun: building) also uses た for 建 but もの for 物. The on-reading けん appears in formal contexts (建設 kensetsu — construction).
• 寺 rendaku: てら in isolation → でら in compound temple names (清水寺 きよみずでら, not きよみずてら). The suffix -じ (on-reading) is used for shorter temple name suffixes (金閣寺 きんかくじ).
• 絵 mnemonic: 糸（thread）+ 会（meet）= 絵（picture）. The 糸 radical signals colour/textile — threads woven together form a painting.

5. Progress Tracker