Magatama - Magatama

Japanese: 勾玉∥曲玉 - まがたま

A bead with a hole near one end of its curved body through which a cord can pass. The curved shape was likely given the name magatama. The Nihon Shoki records it as magatama, while the Kojiki uses the character magatama. The character magatama was originally used, but the prevailing theory is that the character magatama was changed to magatama because the character magaku has a negative meaning, as seen in compound words such as magaku (straight) and magazuku (curved). For convenience, the part with the hole is called the head and the other end the tail, and accordingly the inside of the curved body is called the belly and the outside the back. In fact, a bead with three or four lines carved into the end of the head is called a "T-shaped head magatama."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

湾曲した体の一端に近く緒をとおす孔をうがった玉。湾曲した形を〈まがたま〉と名づけたのであろう。《日本書紀》は勾玉と記し，《古事記》は曲玉の字を用いる。はじめ曲玉の字をあてたが，曲には曲直などの熟語にみるように悪い意味もあるので，勾玉に改めたという説が有力である。便宜上，孔のある部分を頭，他の端を尾とし，それにしたがって，湾曲した体の内側を腹，外側を背と呼ぶ。ひいては，頭端に3～4条の線を刻んだものを〈丁字頭（ちようじがしら）勾玉〉という。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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