today's #practicalkanji: 烹

this kanji is used in one neat little compound:

割烹 (かっぽう) = (traditional) japanese restaurant

a 割烹 is a high-end japanese restaurant, usu. w/ counter seating. they may do courses, but many let customers order items à la carte.

a 割烹着 (かっぽうぎ) is a gown-like smock invented in japan, worn during cooking or cleaning to protect the clothes from getting dirty.

割 means "cut up (meat)" and 烹 means "cook with fire", the processes that form the basis of cooking.

the word 割烹 dates back to at least 300 BCE, attested in one of mencius's writings. ofc, it didn't refer to jp cooking then--kanji hadn't even made it to japan yet!

割烹 started being used to refer to high-end jp cuisine in the late edo period, and its modern image (as shown in the first image posted on this thread) was established during the late meiji period.

references:
https://i-k-i.jp/11951 
https://memolog.info/archives/1271#toc2

images:
http://www.gionkappou-fujiwara.com/  https://www.katsufujiya.com/topics/netstore-info/entry-18469.html