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A disastrous year
Seihan Mori, chief priest of Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, writes the kanji for wazawai (disaster) during a Dec. 13 ceremony to announce the character best symbolizing 2004.
The kanji garnered 20,900 out of 92,000 votes in the Kanji of the Year contest organized by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, indicating disasters like the Niigata earthquakes of late October and the many typhoons that hit the nation left a lasting impression on people's minds.
The Japan Times Weekly: Dec. 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
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