洗う
a-ra-u
The Japanese verb that washes a ledger
The picture Water runs over a surface, a hand rubs, and what was stuck there comes loose and flows off with it. 洗う lets water carry the stuck stuff away; 拭く rubs it off with something dry.
Where the picture shows up in 洗う
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Water over the hands
ご飯の前に手を洗ってください。
gohan no mae ni te o aratte kudasai
Please wash your hands before you eat.
Under the tap two palms rub together and the dirt in the creases runs off with the water.
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Grease off a dish
お皿は私が洗います。
o-sara wa watashi ga arai-masu
I'll wash the plates.
A sponge rubs the film of oil off a plate and it slides down the drain in the foam.
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Cloth swirled in water
この服は水で洗えますか。
kono fuku wa mizu de arae-masu ka
Can this be washed in water?
Fabric is swirled in a full basin and a cloud of grey spreads out of it.
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Water poured over the head
髪を洗ってから寝ます。
kami o aratte kara ne-masu
I'll wash my hair before bed.
Head bowed under the stream, fingers working across the scalp.
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Combing through to expose
警察が会社の帳簿を洗っています。
keisatsu ga kaisha no chōbo o aratte i-masu
The police are going through the company's books.
A finger tracks down the ledger line by line until the numbers someone hid come to the surface.
洗う also means to investigate until what was hidden shows.
All of it in one picture
洗う is one picture: water plus rubbing, and what was stuck comes away. Run water over your palms and you wash your hands; rub the grease off a plate and it goes down the drain; swirl cloth in a basin and that is laundry; pour water over your head and work your scalp and that is a shampoo; run your finger down a ledger line by line until hidden numbers surface, and that is digging into it. With 洗う there is always something stuck that comes loose, and the surface under it left showing as it is.