Welcome to Gaia! ::

蟲

So kind of recently gaia put of two episodes of mushishi (spelled 蟲師).

I thought it was kind of weird that a character with three 'mushi' (insect) in it would still be pronounced 'mushi'. Before I continue, I'd like to say I know basically NO kanji (around 200-300 characters). So I thought maybe that the first character was 'mu' and the second was 'shishi', but the main idea of the story is that there are these creatures called 'mushi' and a person who is a 'mushi*shi'.

I tried looking up the kanji, and got 'teacher' for the second character (still no idea how it's used, I always say sensei). But I still couldn't find out what the first character meant. I asked my mom (who is Japanese) and she didn't know what it meant.

So my questions are:
1) Is '蟲' an actual kanji character?
2) If so, what does it mean, what are its other readings, and what are some examples of how it is actually used?
3) If not, is it hanzi, is it made-up?
4) If it is hanzi, what does it mean?
5) If it is made-up, do people make up kanji like this a lot?
6) Care to tell me anything about 師?

So my questions are:
1) Is '蟲' an actual kanji character?
2) If so, what does it mean, what are its other readings, and what are some examples of how it is actually used?
3) If not, is it hanzi, is it made-up?
4) If it is hanzi, what does it mean?
5) If it is made-up, do people make up kanji like this a lot?
6) Care to tell me anything about 師?

I'm finding out about it, but so far it appears to be readチュウ　むし
and it must be old Japanese that isn't used anymore. Since it is old Japanese (not used anymore) chances are there aren't any compounds for it. You can't even type it up. However it could be used in old poetry like 恋's old form (which my computer is not letting my write... IME is not opening)

I could be hanzi... though since I don't know chinese, the readings in mandarin aren't working (could be Cantonese?) and means insect or worms.

Kanji is not made up just like that. Though I assume they'll simplify something, kanji is never made up. You cannot make up a kanji anymore.

師　シ master
grade 5 kanji, JLPT level 2 10 strokes

教師　きょうし instructor
師弟　してい
医師　いし
牧師　ぼくし
師匠　ししょう

You should note that sensei doesn't specifically mean teacher, although you probably did know that, and that 教師 kyoushi DOES specifically mean teacher.

For this reason, one should never ever refer to themselves as a 'sensei' if they are a teacher, as this would be profoundly rude and would make you come across as an a*****e. Always use kyoushi when refering to yourself. If you see someone calling themselves a 'sensei' you can rightfully laugh in their face and kick them in the teeth

I see you're not very familiar with dry sarcasm xd

If that's what it was, then apologies for not picking up on it. But you may have noticed, sarcasm often doesn't carry very well over the internet, so it helps to be a bit clearer.