電飾 (denshoku) means decorative lighting, the kind that transforms ordinary streets into glowing wonderlands every winter. But the kanji tell an origin story that spans millennia. 電 (den) shows rain (雨) with a lightning bolt (申) stretching through it. Ancient scribes drew the actual zigzag of a lightning strike, then added rain clouds above. Raw storm energy, captured in ink. Today it simply means electricity. 飾 (shoku) started as someone wiping dirt off something with a cloth (巾).