Why are the kanji for suika and kabocha written with the kanji for west and south?


I was able to translate as west melon and south melon. The melon part makes
sense, but why were directions used? I saw the sui (water) kanji for
watermelon, but it is no longer used.




The kanji spellings are directly borrowed from China, so it's Chinese that
call them so. Cucurbits are originally tropical plants, thus they were all
imported to East Asia at some points of history. **西瓜** suggests that it came
from [Western Regions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Regions), and
**南瓜** from Southeast Asia. As they are tropical plants, 北瓜 shouldn't exist
logically, but according to [a Chinese
wiki](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E7%93%9C/2823726) it is a Chinese
dialectal name of zucchini and the like. 東瓜 seems totally nonexistent except
being a rare variation of 冬瓜 (wax gourd).

The Japanese name スイカ is a [唐宋音](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8D-on), or
transcription of later Chinese sound (西 is usually read セイ or サイ, which are
older ones). It is a quite natural consequence that it was associated with 水
due to more regular reading and the juicy fruit (as much as how English calls
it _watermelon_ ), but the spelling is rare now. As for カボチャ, it reflects the
fact that it was imported to Japan via Cambodia (カンボジア), though its origin is
Americas.

Incidentally, _cucumber_ is called キュウリ and 胡瓜 in kanji. 胡 is a Chinese word
to call ["barbarians" who live to the west of
China](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%83%A1#Chinese), and its Japanese
name is from き "yellow" + うり "melon, gourd". It may baffle modern people who
only eat green unripe fruit of it, but it turns yellow when mature.
Interestingly it is now mostly called 黄瓜 in Chinese, but this spelling is rare
in Japan.

Also see:
[「南瓜」はカボチャ、「西瓜」はスイカ、なのに「北瓜」や「東瓜」がないのはどうしてですか？](http://kanjibunka.com/kanji-
faq/mean/q0408/)




The kanji spellings are directly borrowed from China, so it's Chinese that
call them so. Cucurbits are originally tropical plants, thus they were all
imported to East Asia at some points of history. **西瓜** suggests that it came
from [Western Regions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Regions), and
**南瓜** from Southeast Asia. As they are tropical plants, 北瓜 shouldn't exist
logically, but according to [a Chinese
wiki](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E7%93%9C/2823726) it is a Chinese
dialectal name of zucchini and the like. 東瓜 seems totally nonexistent except
being a rare variation of 冬瓜 (wax gourd).

The Japanese name スイカ is a [唐宋音](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8D-on), or
transcription of later Chinese sound (西 is usually read セイ or サイ, which are
older ones). It is a quite natural consequence that it was associated with 水
due to more regular reading and the juicy fruit (as much as how English calls
it _watermelon_ ), but the spelling is rare now. As for カボチャ, it reflects the
fact that it was imported to Japan via Cambodia (カンボジア), though its origin is
Americas.

Incidentally, _cucumber_ is called キュウリ and 胡瓜 in kanji. 胡 is a Chinese word
to call ["barbarians" who live to the west of
China](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%83%A1#Chinese), and its Japanese
name is from き "yellow" + うり "melon, gourd". It may baffle modern people who
only eat green unripe fruit of it, but it turns yellow when mature.
Interestingly it is now mostly called 黄瓜 in Chinese, but this spelling is rare
in Japan.

Also see:
[「南瓜」はカボチャ、「西瓜」はスイカ、なのに「北瓜」や「東瓜」がないのはどうしてですか？](http://kanjibunka.com/kanji-
faq/mean/q0408/)

