母　子　日　本　水

The character 母 evolved from a figure of a woman kneeling with two dots representing breasts — the nurturing symbol of a mother. It is closely related to 女 (woman), but with those two extra marks of life.

The character 子 is a direct pictograph of a baby with outstretched arms and a large head — the universal image of a child or infant. The wrapped lower body shows the baby cannot yet walk.

Originally a circle with a dot at the centre — a direct drawing of the sun. Over time the circle became a square and the dot became a horizontal line. 日 also means day, because the sun marks one day passing.

本 is the character 木 (tree) with a short line added at the base — pointing to the root. The root is the origin of all things, so 本 came to mean 'origin', 'foundation', and later 'book' (the foundational object of knowledge).

水 began as a drawing of a flowing river — a central current with ripples spreading to both sides. The flowing strokes of the modern character still echo the movement of water streaming downward.