Introduction to Kanji

A brief history of Kanji

Chinese characters, along with the Chinese culture, came to Japan in the fourth orfifth century, at a time when the Japanese language had as yet no writing system. TheChinese characters were adopted to represent in writing the Japanese spokenlanguage.

At the beginning, the Chinese characters were used phonetically to represent similarJapanese sounds, regardless of the meaning of each Chinese character. For example,

yama which means mountain in Japanese, came to be written as . The Chinesepronunciation of these two characters was ya-ma, however, the meaning is not at allrelated to mountain.

ya-ma mountain

At a later stage, the Chinese characters were used ideographically, regardless of theirChinese pronunciations, to represent Japanese words of the same or related meaning.

For example, yama came to be written as , though in Chinese waspronounced shan.

yama mountain

That is why many kanji have so-called Chinese readings and Japanese readings.

E.G san (on-yomi, meaning sound) Chinese reading yama (kun-yomi, meaning explanation) Japanese reading

Kanji came to be used to express nouns, main parts of verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Why do Japanese kanji have more than one pronunciation?

As explained above, many kanji have Chinese & Japanese readings. Thepronunciations of Chinese characters were different depending on the periods andregions in China from which they were adopted. Over time, the Japanese peopleadopted three pronunciations as Chinese readings for the Japanese kanji. They are

called (go sound) (kan sound) and (tou sound).

(go sound) is the pronunciation used in the (Wu) region around the lowerYangtze River during the Southern & Northern Dynasties. These pronunciationswere brought to Japan by the 6th century.

(kan sound) is the pronunciation used in the northwest region during the TangDynasty. They were brought to Japan by the Japanese delegations sent to the Tangcourt during the 7th ~ 9th century.

(tou sound, it is sometimes called sou sound) is the standard pronunciationduring the Song Dynasty. They were brought to Japan by monks and merchantsaround 12th and 13th century.

Here, for example, are three Chinese readings for the character . E.G.

( )

One further reason for the proliferation of Chinese readings is that the Japanesepeople applied some Chinese characters to the Japanese original words when themeanings of those Chinese characters were the same as the Japanese words.

Here, for example, are Japanese readings for the character . E.G. ( ) to go

( ) to do, carry out, perform

Six ways of classifying Kanji

Formation Pictograph Kanji created from simple illustrations of objects in daily life

mountain

sun

hand

Ideograph Kanji created to indicate abstract concepts

on, up under, below

three

Phono-semantic characters Kanji created by combining an element expressing the meaning and an elementexpressing the sound

heart + hi hi

sorrow, sad

gold, metal + dou dou copper

Compound ideographs Kanji created by combining two or more kanji

The compound kanji is related to the meaning of the original kanji but thesound has nothing to do with the original ones.

sun + moon bright

person + tree to rest

Usage Associated meaning charactersKanji used to express words related to or associated with a kanjis coremeaning

beauty, virtue, goodness to like

music to enjoy

Provisional-use charactersKanji used for phonetic purpose only, with no regard for their meaning

America (America is usually written in Katakana)

10 Basic Strokes stroke)

All kanji can be written with some combination of 10 basic strokes.

1. (a horizontal line)

2. (a vertical line)

3. (a diagonal line)

4. (a dot)

5. (a stroke which includes a diagonal line and hook or change ofdirection)

6. (a curved stroke with a hook formed like the last stroke in the kanji, pronounced meaning hand)

7. (a stroke with a corner)

8. (The name of this stroke means duck, but it is unclear why this is so.)

9. (the hiragana character)

10. (a fish hook)

3 ways to end a stroke

1. stop The writer does not begin to lift upon the brush or pen untilthe stroke is completed.

2. sweep The writer begins to let up on the brush or pen beforefinishing writing the character. Thus the end of the strokebecomes thin and stretched out.

3. hook At the end of the stroke the writer lifts the brush or penabruptly at a diagonal. The small hook should not bemade too large.

Basic Rules of Stroke Order

A kanji must be written according to a fixed stroke order so that it will look neat andwell-balanced. Here are the basic rules of stroke order. Note that these are the basic rulesof stroke order. There are exceptions to these rules. At the beginning of the study of kanji it may see burdensome to have to learn themeaning of each character, two or more pronunciations, and correct stroke order as well.However, stroke order is quite systematic, so if you make an effort to learn it correctly inthe beginning, you will find that you will know how to write the stroke order of most ofcharacters you later encounter. Note, that neat handwriting is valued in Japan. Peoplewho write sloppily may be considered to be uneducated or stupid.

1. From top to bottom

2. From left to right

3. When two or more strokes cross, horizontal strokes usually precede vertical ones

4. Center first, then left and right

5. A vertical line running through the center is written last

6. A horizontal stroke that goes through the entire kanji is written last

7. Outer frame first, but bottom line last

8. Right-to left diagonal stroke precedes left-to-right

9. Nyo, , , (two of the radicals which wrap around the lower left of a kanji)are written last

10. Nyo, , (these two nyo, or wrapping kanji) are written first

11. First the vertical stroke then the short horizontal stroke which adjoins it on the right

12. A dot at the north-east corner is written last

Radicals Kanji are classified in a kanji dictionary according to their main components which are calledradical (roots) in English and in Japanese. means a group and means a chief. There are 214 historical radicals. You will soon become familiar withthe most frequently used radicals. Almost no one uses all 214 radicals.

Here are 8 representative categories of radicals according to their position within a character andsome examples.

1. radicals on the left side of the kanji

person

strength

soil

mouth

woman

child

mountain

cloth

bow

street, to go

hand

mind, spirit, heart

sun, time

moon, period

tree, wood

bird

hill, mound

2. radicals on the right

sword

village, country

head, face

small bird

3. radicals on the top

house, dwelling place

bamboo

grass, plant

rain, cloud

4. radicals on the bottom

fire, to burn

human legs

plate

contrary, to err

5. radicals which enclose the kanji

territorial boundaries

gate

box

steam

6. radicals which hand down

roof

sickness

door

awning

7. radicals which wrap around the bottom of a character

road, walk, to advance

stretching

to run

demon

8. one stroke radicals

dot

the second

vertical stroke with a hook

vertical stroke

diagonal sweeping stroke

one, horizontal stroke

This document is prepared by Harumi Hibino Lory, proof-read by Janet Fair, with the technicalsupport from Keiko Yoshimura.

keikoCopyright 2002, 2003 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Kanji Radicals Cheat Sheet

one stick drop of liquid slide z-hook barb

two kettle lid person influential personrice

paddy hat legs enter fish legs hornsupside

down boxtop of the

head ice water

table open box variety stick rack power enclosureknife / sword spoon

box on its side ten

shamans stick seal cliff

me / I stool (selfish!) me ninebroken

box stairs nailcrooked

nail volcano leaf

sweet water slide

mouth ground samurai winter evening big / large woman / female childfancy pot

lidmeasure-

ment little

unicorn w/ horns

deranged big man flag left hand mountain river river bend

construction

snake skull

hanging towel dry

pile of my stuff

man on cliff

big step / stride twenty ceremony

busted up stick

double knocked over box

stuck ninja star hair

linger / loiter

fish legs stick spiky stick liquid

animal grass butcher alligator skull deathreinforced

Stairsreinforced enclosure

1

2

3

Remember, kanji isnt made up of individual strokes, its made up of radicals. If you learn by strokes, you have to remember 5, 10, 15+ plus steps. If you learn the radicals, and put them together like building blocks, youll only have to remember 2, 3, or 4 steps to put together a kanji. Doesnt that sound a lot nicer than learning each individual stroke? To get the full picture, use this cheat sheet with the kanji section of TextFugu.com.

grave slide

grave slide

ceremonial slide door hand holy stool

broken stool figure

stirring rod T-cliff direction heaven

crooked heaven sun moon tree fail stop bad

stool next to table compare fur

family name spirit

water fire fish tail claw father double X (xx) dog (ne)lly king origincommuni-

ty devil wing

mysterious melon

10,000 eggs sugary life

double moon rice field

running man

shore breaker battle tent white

covered stool

plate eye heavenly slide stonetwo small

my box home

two branch

treecave stand

Nellys got a knife

genera-tion giant

demented dog five

stabbed finger

wide eye snake mother cow

20 upside down boxes

attentive mother

sideways eye fang

bamboo rice small pie flattened mountain sheep feathers rakethree

brach tree ear brush meat self

my grave broken sun tongue boat clothes good colorseven cliffs bug blood go west

4

5

6

servant see say fish leg house bean hog clam red leg car bitterunder-ground clothes

rice slide empty rice field

gold leader gate emperor rain blue alleyway mountain horns excuse equal

noise clam with leaf hat wind food neck goods horse tall demon dragon admirable fish

7

9+

6

8

bird hempstanding on a holy

hand grenade

yellow black none tooth

TopA brief history of KanjiWhy do Japanese kanji have more than one pronunciation?Six ways of classifying KanjiFormation (4)Usage (2)

10 Basic StrokesBasic Rules of Stroke Order3 ways to end a strokeRadicals by category1. hen2. tsukuri3. kanmuri4. ashi5. kamae6. tare7. nyou8. one stroke

Kanji Elements (4).pdfKanji elementsKanji Radical Elements Cheat Sheet