苦

Work of art, literature, music, etc. name

Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow: Our Minamata Disease (1960 semi-fictional novel by Michiko Ishimure)

bitter tincture

Buddhism

truth of suffering

strenuous pursuit of learning under difficulties

sour (wry) face

Ixeris dentata (species of the daisy family)

magnesia; magnesium oxide

wormwood (Artemisia absinthium); absinthe

tight budget

Buddhism

Suffering, Source of Suffering Desire, The Cessation of Suffering, The Way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering (The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism)

Arduous March; North Korean famine of the late 1990s

Proverb

no pain, no gain; no cross, no crown

Japanese timber bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides); giant timber bamboo; madake

にがたけ only

Simon bamboo (Pleioblastus simonii)

to go through all sorts of hardships

Sophora flavescens

coldest time of the year; bitter suffering

Idiomatic expression

to drink a bitter cup; to have a bitter experience; to suffer a defeat

to cause someone trouble; to burden someone

dolomite

bitterness; bitter taste

grievance machinery; complaints department

Chemistry

bitter principle; bitter-tasting substance

to suffer; to complain of a pain

ombudsman