*absent-minded finger-tapping* I'm still not sure what the original referent for hakubaikou would've been.
(And yeah, I know there's a common assumption that the scent was associated with prostitutes, but I've never found any basis for that beyond "I saw it somewhere on the web" RK fan discussions. On the one paw, it seems like a reasonable conclusion from some of Hiko's comments, but on another, if the scent was so commonly worn by prostitutes, then a.) why would it have done any good to ask the whorehouses whether they'd processed any girls who were wearing it, and b.) why couldn't they find any? (Though to the extent that Iizuka was involved in that part of the search, he could've been lying through his teeth.))
This particular kou may be 香, whose visual etymology I poked at when looking at two different kanji (http://wombat1138.livejournal.com/62800.html) commonly used to write out the name "Kaoru"; to the extent that a physical medium is specified, I'm inclined to think of liquid rather than smoke, if only because the original kanji implies sweet millet syrup rather than burning incense.
Hakubai is "white plum"... hmmm... *pokes at web*... ZOMG.
梅: "Japanese plum"; depending on the context, can be pronounced bai or ume, but that's not the ZOMG part.
梅毒: baidoku, "syphilis" (the second kanji, doku, means "poison"; despite Christopher Lee's comment about the origins of Count Dooku's name, neither vowel of this word is elongated).
There do seem to be a bunch of matches for the kanji triad 白梅香, including with crossrefs to RK, so I guess that means I've found the right ones.
no subject
(And yeah, I know there's a common assumption that the scent was associated with prostitutes, but I've never found any basis for that beyond "I saw it somewhere on the web" RK fan discussions. On the one paw, it seems like a reasonable conclusion from some of Hiko's comments, but on another, if the scent was so commonly worn by prostitutes, then a.) why would it have done any good to ask the whorehouses whether they'd processed any girls who were wearing it, and b.) why couldn't they find any? (Though to the extent that Iizuka was involved in that part of the search, he could've been lying through his teeth.))
This particular kou may be 香, whose visual etymology I poked at when looking at two different kanji (http://wombat1138.livejournal.com/62800.html) commonly used to write out the name "Kaoru"; to the extent that a physical medium is specified, I'm inclined to think of liquid rather than smoke, if only because the original kanji implies sweet millet syrup rather than burning incense.
Hakubai is "white plum"... hmmm... *pokes at web*... ZOMG.
梅: "Japanese plum"; depending on the context, can be pronounced bai or ume, but that's not the ZOMG part.
梅毒: baidoku, "syphilis" (the second kanji, doku, means "poison"; despite Christopher Lee's comment about the origins of Count Dooku's name, neither vowel of this word is elongated).
There do seem to be a bunch of matches for the kanji triad 白梅香, including with crossrefs to RK, so I guess that means I've found the right ones.