0035 朝

朝

This is ‘morning’ or ‘dynasty.’ It’s pronounced ‘CHO’ or ‘asa’ in Japanese and ‘cháo’ or ‘zhāo’ in Chinese. This represents the sun

日

rising along with the mist (apparently the two crosses) on the sea, seen from a boat. The right-hand element is supposed to be a simplification of a boat character, which is now this

舟

but which looked like this in ancient days:

with seats and a tiller at the rear. The whole character was nicely evocative, like this:

.

“By extension, the Imperial courts, so called because they were held in early morning.” (Wieger)