also: どひつ · ひっとうさい · つくづくし
fertile shoot of field horsetail; horsetail sprout
Refers to the edible young spring shoot of the field horsetail (Equisetum arvense), often foraged as a wild vegetable. The plant is also known as 杉菜 (すぎな).
See also: スギナ
charred wooden stick for underdrawings; burnt-tip drawing stick
Only with reading どひつ
A traditional drawing tool: a wooden stick with a charred tip, used like charcoal for sketching underdrawings. Also called 焼き筆 (やきふで). Reading is どひつ.
See also: 焼き筆
In spring, I look forward to picking tsukushi shoots along the riverbank.
In spring, many horsetail shoots grow on the embankment.
My grandmother made tsukudani from horsetail shoots for me.
In Japanese painting, a charred stick (dohitsu) is sometimes used for underdrawings.
When it warms up, tsukushi shoots start sprouting along the rice-field paths.
焼き筆 is the common, everyday name for the charred-tip drawing stick, while 土筆 (read どひつ) is a rarer, more literary term for the same tool.
土筆 is the fertile spring shoot that people pick to eat, while 杉菜 is the sterile green stem that grows from the same horsetail plant later in the season.
Standard kanji spelling for the horsetail shoot; reading つくし is gikun/jukujikun.
Reading どひつ is used only for the drawing-stick sense.
Obsolete kana usage for the plant sense.
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially for the plant.
Alternate kanji spelling; also read ひっとうさい, but つくし is the common reading for this form.
Alternate reading for the plant sense; rarely used.
The kanji 土筆 literally mean 'earth brush,' likely from the appearance of the shoot. The reading つくし is a jukujikun (special kanji reading) whose origin is uncertain; it may be related to 尽くし (exhausting) or an old plant name. The reading どひつ is the on'yomi of the kanji.