[kazinator]

OMG, I read 藩, cold: "han" feudal domain. I did stare at it for a second or three, but got it. I added it to my vocabulary maybe a year-and-a-half ago?

It, and words that include it, are not such common words. How/why did he choose that for the example, I wonder.

For that matter, how did I add it? It was due to some recursive chasing of words in a dictionary, where some word's older meaning was being explained as relating to some feudal situations in the Edo period, and that explanation used 藩 in it. Evidently, I have reviewed it 24 times. The fact that it contains 番 ("ban", number in a series, turn, ...) helps a lot.

[andrewzah]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that does this.

I write down Korean word definitions in Korean, and this usually leads me to a whole bunch of niche words.

[pm215]

Commonness depends on your reading material, of course -- if you read Japanese novels set in the feudal era you'll trip over 藩 all the time :-)

[Clewza313]

I suspect the author meant to use 漢 (as in hanzi/kanji), and keyed in the wrong one instead.

[EmilieTypo]

Answer from the author of the article herself : No no, I put the kanji 藩 on purpose, because I love this kanji! It is a beautiful one I think :)