Is it true that the Japanese characters for tea and eyelid are the same?


I came across several references that say that the Japanese characters for
eyelid and tealeaf are the same. This is also in keeping with the legend that
the original tea shrub sprung from the eyelids of Bodhidharma. Here are two...

<https://earthstoriez.com/japan-tea-daruma-legend/>

<https://www.dethlefsen-balk.de/ENU/56099/Legend_of_Tea.html>

(search for "eyelid and tea" on the above pages)

I tried translate.google.com and this is what I got: eyelid: まぶた tealeaf: 茶葉

To me they don't look similar in any way. Additionally, does the pronunciation
of the two have any similarity? Can someone please educate me on this? Thank
you!

PS: I posed the same question to ChatGPT and this is the response I got:

"Yes, it is true that the Japanese characters for "eyelid" (まぶた) and "tealeaf"
(茶葉) are the same. The character in question is 茶, which can be read as either
"cha" or "sa" in Japanese. When it is used to mean "eyelid," it is typically
pronounced as "sa," and when it is used to mean "tealeaf," it is typically
pronounced as "cha." However, it is important to note that the Japanese
language uses a variety of different scripts, and the characters that you are
referring to are written in kanji, which are Chinese characters that have been
adopted into the Japanese writing system. The pronunciation of kanji
characters can vary depending on the context in which they are used."

Hoping a human can either confirm or dispel this.




### Just plain wrong

As @[user19642323](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/47010/) states in
[their answer post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/98042/5229), any
statement that _" Until today the Japanese language uses the same character
for eyelid and tea 茶"_ is wrong.

### Where did this come from?

Also as @[user19642323](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/47010/)
states, you appear to have two separate websites
[[1]](https://earthstoriez.com/japan-tea-daruma-legend/) and
[[2]](https://www.dethlefsen-balk.de/ENU/56099/Legend_of_Tea.html) that
include the same text almost verbatim. #1 provides a bit more detail, so let's
look at that one.

This website, <https://earthstoriez.com/japan-tea-daruma-legend/>, has the
problematic text towards the bottom of the page in a separate text box. This
has tabs across the top of it, allowing the user to view the text in English
(the default), "Deutsch" (German), "Italiano" (Italian), and "Espanol"
(misspelling for "Español": Spanish).

### Bad translation from some other European language + mistake?

The "English" tab authoritatively -- and completely incorrectly -- states:

> Until today the Japanese language uses the same character for eyelid and tea
> 茶.

**Any** dictionary that includes a definition for 茶 will clearly show that
this means "tea", _not_ "eyelid". Chinese characters have inherent meanings.
They can sometimes have multiple meanings, but this is not such a case.

→ This claim by the website is plainly bullshit.

If we check the tabs for the other languages, we find some variance.

  * DE: 

> Bis zum heutigen Tag, ist in der Japanischen Schrift das Schriftzeichen für
> Augenlid und Tee だ da, た ta, das Gleiche.

  * IT: 

> Ancora oggi, l’ideogramma giapponese per palpebra e té だ da, た ta, lo
> stesso.

  * ES: 

> En la escritura japonesa, los ideogramas de párpado y de té だ da, た ta, son
> los mismos hasta el día de hoy.

These three all consistently make the same mistakes -- albeit different
mistakes than the English version!

  1. These all talk about "Japanese ideograms", meaning [kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji).  
Strictly speaking, kanji are not Japanese -- these are almost entirely
borrowed from Chinese. _(There are a small handful of characters that were
invented in Japan, which have mostly been adopted into other languages that
use Chinese characters. Examples
include[腺](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%85%BA#Japanese) (_sen _,
"gland").)_ Even the name "kanji" literally means "Chinese characters": 漢字,
from 漢 ( _kan_ , "Han Chinese") + 字 ( _ji_ , "character").

  2. These then talk about だ ( _da_ ) and た ( _ta_ ), which are [hiragana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana), not kanji.  
Hiragana is a [syllabary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllbary), which is
like an alphabet, except each character (called a "kana") represents a
syllable as a combination of consonant + vowel, rather than just a single
sound such as a separate consonant or vowel. Kana represent **sound** , not
meaning.

  3. These then claim that "tea" and "eyelid" are both represented by both the hiragana letters だ ( _da_ ) and た ( _ta_ ). 
    * The word for "tea" in Japanese is [茶](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%8C%B6#Japanese) ( _cha_ ), with both the kanji 茶 and the pronunciation borrowed ultimately from Chinese centuries ago. In specific contexts, this kanji 茶 can also be pronounced as _sa_ or _ta_. So far as I'm aware, 茶 is never pronounced in Japanese as _da_.
    * The word for "eyelid" in Japanese is [瞼](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9E%BC#Japanese) ( _mabuta_ ). The kanji 瞼 is borrowed from Chinese, and the pronunciation is native Japanese, as a combination of _ma_ for "eye" and _futa_ for "lid". _(The_ futa _pronunciation often changes to_ buta _in compounds, due to a sound shift called[rendaku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku).)_  
In certain compounds, 瞼 might instead be pronounced using the Chinese-derived
reading. However, this is _ken_ , not _ta_ or _da_.

### Might be ChatGPT rubbish

To stretch things a bit and to be as kind as possible, the completely wrong
conclusions in the website text _might_ be hinging on that final _-ta_ in the
word _mabuta_ , and erroneously connecting this to the rare _ta_ pronunciation
for 茶.

More likely, this is just some horrible AI garbage, which naive humans have
blindly accepted as authoritative, instead of doing actual research and
recognizing it for the bullshit that it is.

### Conclusion: [_caveat
lector_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caveat_lector)

If you run across some website stating "Language A has this word X that means
Y" -- do some digging. There are numerous free online references you can use
to quickly check any such statement and see if it passes the smell test.

This statement about "tea" and "eyelid" in Japanese? **It stinks to high
heaven.** Throw it out with the other spoiled compost in the back of your
fridge.

