246 CHAPTER 5. COUNTERS AND COUNTING
referred to as ”birds”, which is why it simply had to be counted with.
This practice lasted until 1872, when the Meiji restoration embraced a num-
ber of Western views and customs, and eating meat was allowed again after
a more than 1300 year period of decreed abstinence.
The pronunciations for this counter are wholly unremarkable:
( )A fun example sentence for this counter is a classic:”There are 2 chickens in the garden.”The pronunciation for this sentence is ”
”, which is always a good reason to use this sentence whenever appro-
priately possible.
- Large animals
This kanji on its own means ”head”, and for reasons about as inexplicable
as why is for used for cylindrical objects, is used to count large ani-
mals such as sheep, cows, horses, elephants, giraffes, salt water crocodiles
(which are astoundingly huge), etc. The pronunciations are:
An example sentence would be:”(I) can see 1 horse.”