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Introduction

Modern Japanese can be written horizontally, from left to right, or vertically, from top to bottom. Japanese is one of the rare languages that uses multiple writing systems simultaneously, sometimes even in the same sentence. It is written by combining Chinese characters, called kanji, and two sets of syllabic alphabets called kana (hiragana and katakana) along with a few punctuation marks. Each kanji character represents a meaning, while each kana character represents a sound. For example, the following short sentence contains kanji, hiragana, and katakana:

パーティーに来ました。

Pātī ni kimashita.

(He) came to the party.

The non-Chinese loanword パーティー, written pātī in Roman letters and meaning party, is written in katakana. The stem of the verb 来, pronounced ki and meaning to come, is written using kanji. The grammatical particle に, written ni in Roman letters and meaning to, and the inflectional element ました, pronounced mashita (polite past affirmative), are written in hiragana. Isn’t it interesting that all three writing systems can be used in such a simple sentence?

The total number of kana is relatively small: there are only 46 basic characters for each kana system in modern Japanese. By contrast, the total number of kanji is quite large. The Japanese government selected a total of 1,945 kanji (the so-called jōyō kanji, or kanji for daily use) in 1981. Japanese students are expected to learn how to read all of these kanji by the time they graduate high school. Additional kanji are used in proper names and certain other words.

You might think that there are too many kanji characters to learn, but don’t get discouraged! If you learn the first several hundred kanji characters, you will be able to understand or guess the meaning of most street signs, restaurant menus, merchandise names, a variety of instructions, and much more! Furthermore, it is a lot of fun to learn kanji because the characters have interesting historical and cultural backgrounds and amazing compositional structures. Each kanji character has a unique meaning and shape, so each time you learn a new kanji character, you’ll feel a bit like you’ve made a new friend.

The key to your ultimate success is to learn the basic kanji correctly and solidly. A thorough knowledge of the simplest kanji will provide you with a firm foundation for mastering more complex kanji quickly. The 103 kanji included in this book are the basic kanji used in everyday life and also commonly appear in Level 5 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. If you make a manageable plan for learning with this workbook everyday, you’ll be able to enjoy the process of learning kanji and greatly improve your reading proficiency in Japanese. This introduction provides you with the basic information you need to know about the development and use of kanji and shows you how to write them properly.

How did kanji develop?

The word kanji literally means “characters of the Han Dynasty of ancient China” (206 B.C.E. to 220 A.D.). The initial forms of kanji originated in the Yellow River region of China between 2000 and 1500 B.C.E. The earliest preserved characters were written on tortoise shells and animal bones, and about 3,000 characters have been discovered from this early period. Depending on how they were formed, kanji can be classified into four main categories: pictorial kanji, indicative kanji, compound ideographic kanji, and phonetic-ideographic kanji.

Pictorial kanji originated from pictures of objects or phenomena. For example:

Meaning	Original Picture	Modern Kanji
River		川
Mountain		山
Tree		木
Sun		日
Moon		月
Rain		雨

Indicative kanji were created as symbolic representations of abstract concepts using points and lines. For example:

Meaning	Original Sign	Modern Kanji
One		一
Two		二
Three		三
Top		上
Bottom		下

Compound ideographic kanji were formed by combining two or more pictorial or indicative kanji to bring out a new but simple idea. For example:

Meaning	Combining Multiple Kanji	Resulting Kanji
Woods	木 + 木 tree + tree	林
Forest	木 + 木 + 木 tree + tree + tree	森
Bright	日 + 月 sun + moon	明

Finally, phonetic-ideographic kanji were formed by combining an element that expressed meaning and an element that carried the sound. For example, the following characters all stand for some body of water:

Meaning	Combining Elements	Kanji
Inlet	氵+ 工 water + KŌ	江
Ocean	氵+ 羊 water + YŌ	洋
River	氵+ 可 water + KA	河

The left side of each character above, 氵, contributes the meaning, showing that each kanji’s meaning is related to water. The right side of each character 工, 羊, or 可, contributes the sound, showing how the kanji should be pronounced.

Kanji characters were brought to Japan from China between the fourth and the fifth centuries A.D. Until then, there were no written symbols in Japanese. The Japanese initially developed a hybrid system where kanji were given Japanese pronunciations and were used for writing Japanese. This system proved unwieldy, since Japanese and Chinese grammar and structure are so different. Then, they developed a system, man’yōgana, in which a limited set of kanji was used to write Japanese words with their sounds. Hiragana and katakana were developed in the Heian Period (794-1185) from some of the kanji characters included in man’yōgana. About 2,000 kanji as well as hiragana and katakana are still used in modern Japanese. Interestingly, there are some kanji characters that were created in Japan. For example, the kanji 峠 (mountain pass), 畑 (field of crops), and 働 (work) were all created in Japan by combining multiple existing kanji components.

How are kanji pronounced?

The Japanese language is very different from the Chinese language, having very distinct grammar and sounds. Many Chinese words consist of one syllable, but most Japanese words have more than one syllable. So, the assignment of a Japanese pronunciation to each kanji required both flexibility and creativity.

On-readings and kun-readings

There are two different ways of reading kanji in Japanese: on-readings (or on-yomi) and kun-readings (or kun-yomi). When kanji characters were first introduced to Japan, the original Chinese pronunciations were also adapted with only minor modifications. Such Chinese ways of reading kanji are called on-readings and are still used, especially when a character appears as a part of a compound where two or more kanji are combined to form a word.

At the same time, many kanji characters were assigned the pronunciation of the existing native Japanese word whose meaning was closest to that of the character. Such Japanese readings are called kun-readings, and are used especially when a character occurs independently in a sentence. For example, the character 母 is pronounced bo (on-reading) when used as a part of the compound word 母国, bokoku (mother country), but is pronounced haha (kun-reading) when used by itself. This is illustrated in the following sentence.

私の母の母国はフランスです。

Watashi no haha no bokoku wa Furansu desu.

My mother’s mother country is France.

In this workbook, on-readings are shown in katakana and, when Romanized, in upper-case letters. Conversely, kun-readings are shown in hiragana and in lower-case letters when Romanized.

Some kanji characters have more than one on-reading or kun-reading, and different readings are used in different contexts. Also note that there are special cases where it is not possible to clearly divide a kanji compound into components that can be pronounced separately.

Okurigana

As noted above, many Chinese words consist of a single syllable, expressed by only one Chinese character, but the corresponding Japanese words often have more than one syllable. In order to use kanji in the Japanese language, some kanji characters needed to be accompanied by kana. Such kana are called okurigana. Okurigana are particularly important for verbs and adjectives, which need inflectional elements, although they may also be used for other types of words, including nouns and adverbs. For example, in the following words, the kanji 高, meaning expensive or high, and the kana that follow jointly represent the pronunciation of the whole word, successfully representing its complete meaning:

高い	takai	expensive(plain present affirmative)
高くない	takakunai	not expensive(plain present negative)
高かった	takakatta	was expensive(plain past affirmative)

In this book, the okurigana are preceded by “-” when first presented in kun-readings.

Furigana

Kanji characters are occasionally provided with kana that shows how they are intended to be read in the given context. Such kana used as a pronunciation guide are called furigana. For example, the hiragana characters placed right above the kanji in the following word are furigana:

高い

Furigana is often used for children or learners of Japanese. This can be a great help for you at the beginning! It is also used in newspapers for unusual readings and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji. Japanese comic books use furigana generously!

How are kanji used in compounds?

Some Japanese words are represented by only one kanji (e.g., 赤, aka, red), but many Japanese words are represented by a kanji with okurigana (e.g., 高い, takai, expensive) or by a kanji compound. Kanji compounds constitute a large proportion of Japanese vocabulary. For example, 先生, written sensei in Roman letters, is a compound meaning teacher. It consists of two characters, 先 (ahead) and 生 (live). In general, on-readings are used for compounds, but occasionally, kun-readings are also used.

By the way, when you write a compound, there is no need to add a space between the kanji characters in it, but don’t try to squeeze the characters together to fit in one-character space. Each character in a compound should take one-character space. For example, notice the difference between 女子(girl) and 好(to like). The first item (女子) is a kanji compound that consists of two kanji characters, 女(woman) and 子(child). By contrast, the second item (好) is a single kanji character that consists of two kanji components, 女and 子.

Some kanji compounds were created in Japan and have been brought back to China and are now being used there. Examples include 電話 denwa (telephone), 化学 kagaku (science), and 社会 shakai (society). Many kanji compounds are also used to represent Japanese culture, concepts, and ideas (e.g., 神道 Shinto) as well as to name Japanese people (e.g., 田中 Tanaka), institutions and companies (e.g., 三菱 Mitsubishi), places (e.g., 東京 Tokyo), and eras (e.g., 明治 Meiji). Regardless of their origin, kanji compounds form an essential part of the lives of Japanese people.

There are two special cases where you may have a hard time reading kanji compounds: jukujikun and ateji. A jukujikun is a unique kun-reading assigned to an entire kanji compound rather than to each kanji character separately. For example, the compound 明日 (tomorrow) can be read as myōnichi using the on-reading of each character in the compound one after another, as in the majority of typical kanji compounds, but can also be read as asu, which is a jukujikun. In the latter case, it is impossible to tell which syllable corresponds to 明 and which syllable corresponds to 日 because the reading is assigned to the whole compound. Other examples of jukujikun include 一日 tsuitachi (the first day of the month), 五月雨 samidare (early summer rain), 海老 ebi (shrimp), and 土産 miyage (souvenir).

Ateji are kanji characters whose sounds are used to represent native Japanese words or non-Chinese loanwords regardless of the meanings of the kanji. For example, the kanji compound 寿司 is made of ateji. It is pronounced sushi, and means sushi, the food, even though 寿 means one’s natural life span and 司 means to administer, neither of which are directly related to food. Other examples of ateji include 目出度い medetai (happy), 出鱈目 detarame (random), and 珈琲 kōhī (coffee). Many ateji for non-Chinese loanwords, including proper names, have been replaced by katakana, but some are still used. In addition, new ateji are occasionally created.

What are radicals?

Most kanji characters are composed of two or more components. Each component may contribute to the kanji’s meaning, sound, or merely its shape. For example, 日 is an independent kanji character meaning sun, but is also a component that lends meaning to many kanji. For example:

明 bright 時 time 晴 clear up

There are many kanji-components, but the most basic and identifiable elements of kanji are called radicals. For hundreds of years, Chinese dictionaries have organized kanji characters according to their radicals. Each Chinese characters was assigned a radical and placed in an appropriate section of a dictionary according to the designated radical.

It is not always clear which component of a kanji is the radical, but this workbook shows the radical for each kanji at the upper right corner of the page. Whenever you learn a new kanji using this book, check its radical. It will help you understand and remember the meaning and the internal composition of the kanji. Eventually, you will be able to identify the radical just by looking at a kanji. There is an index of characters organized by radical near the end of this book.

Depending on its position in a kanji character, radicals are classified into seven categories, as shown in the chart on the opposite page:

How do I look up a kanji in a Japanese dictionary?

Many dictionaries list kanji characters according to their pronunciation, for both on-readings and kun-readings, either in kana or in Roman letters. So, if you know the reading of a kanji character, you can easily find it in such a dictionary using its pronunciation-based index. For example, The Original Modern Reader’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary by Andrew N. Nelson (Tuttle Publishing), has an on/kun index in the back, and kanji characters are alphabetically listed according to both their on-readings and their kun-readings in Roman letters with a unique code number provided for each character. Using that code number, you can easily find the page you should go to in the dictionary.

What if you see a kanji, but you don’t know how to read it? You could then use the radical index included in most dictionaries. In a radical index, hundreds of radicals are listed according to the radical’s total number of strokes. For example, 日 is the radical of 明, and it has 4 strokes. You can find the radical 日 in the radical list under the section for four-stroke radicals in just a few seconds. There you will find a code number, which will guide you to the list of all the kanji with the radical 日. For example, you will see many kanji, including 明, 晴, and 時, on the page specified by the code number for the radical 日. They are ordered according to their total stroke count. You can easily find the kanji character you want in the list.

If you have no clue about either the pronunciation or the radical of the kanji, you can use the kanji’s total stroke count as a reference. This book specifies the total stroke count for each kanji at the upper right corner of each page, but if you always write kanji in the correct stroke order and with the correct stroke count, you can figure it out by yourself.

How are kanji characters written?

To write kanji properly and legibly, it is very important to know how each stroke in a kanji is drawn. Here are some principles and tendencies for stroke endings, stroke directions, and stroke orders.

Stroke Endings

Each stroke ends in とめ tome (stop), はね hane (jump), or はらい harai (sweep). (Note that some diagonal lines end in stop-sweep.) For example, a vertical straight line can end in stop, jump, or sweep, as shown below:

とめ tome(stop)

はね hane(jump)

はらい harai(sweep)

Stroke Directions

A stroke can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, angled, or curved, or can be just a short abbreviated line.

Vertical lines always go from top to bottom, and horizontal lines always go from left to right.

Diagonal lines can go either downward or upward. For example:

If a stroke forms a corner, a sharp angle, or a curve, it goes from left to right and then goes down, or goes down and then left to right. For example:

Some strokes have a combination of a sharp angle and a curve. For example:

Some strokes are extremely short and are called てん ten. They may be vertical or slightly diagonal:

Stroke Order

You should remember how the strokes in each character are ordered in order to write a character neatly with the appropriate shape. Most kanji characters are written following the general principles of stroke order:

1. Kanji are written from top to bottom.

三 (three)

2. Kanji are written from left to right.

川 (river)

3. Horizontal strokes usually precede vertical strokes when crossing, although there are some exceptions such as 王 and 田.

十 (ten)

4. A central line usually precedes the strokes placed on its right and left.

小 (small)

5. An outer frame must be written first before finishing the inside except for the bottom line. The bottom line of an outer frame must be completed at the very end.

国 (country)

6. A right-to-left diagonal stroke precedes a left-to-right diagonal stroke.

人 (person)

7. A vertical line piercing through the center of a character is written last.

車 (vehicle)

8. A horizontal line piercing the center of the character is written last.

子 (child)

How do I learn to write kanji?

Remember that a good beginning and good planning are the keys to success in learning kanji. The following are some suggested steps for learning kanji using this workbook.

Get used to the strokes

Before writing any kanji, practice drawing some of the simple strokes with different endings many times on a sheet of scrap paper. For example, try drawing the strokes presented above (e.g., vertical lines, diagonal lines). Each time you end the stroke, say とめ tome (stop), はね hane (jump), or はらい harai (sweep), depending on which type of ending you are working on. If you have a brush and ink, try to make changes in the thickness of different portions of each stroke. Of course, you can also use a pen or pencil. If you do, ignore the difference in the thickness of different portions of each stroke. Just get used to the general flow of strokes. It will help you to write kanji beautifully in an authentic style.

Understand the character

Before writing an actual kanji character as a whole, familiarize yourself with its meaning, pronunciation, usage examples, and radical. Be creative and make associations to help you remember the shape, composition, meaning, and sound of the character you are working on. Your associations can be logical or natural, or can be silly or funny. Your imagination and creativity will always help you learn and remember new things, especially when you are dealing with numerous items. Under each character in this book, the first several boxes show the stroke order and direction. Refer to them, and try writing the character once. The number of strokes for each kanji is specified in the upper-right corner of each page. Check whether you used the correct number of strokes when you wrote the kanji. Then compare your character with the one printed on the page. Pay attention to the size and the position of the character in relation with the box as well as the proportion and shape of the lines.

Practice writing the character

When you have fully understood the given character in terms of meaning, pronunciation, usage, radical, and stroke order, write it about 10 times in a row. You may not believe it, but your hand muscle will remember how to write a kanji if you repeat writing it many times. If helpful, trace over the gray characters at the beginning of each page.

Review kanji periodically

Practice a few new characters at a time every day following the above steps. Once you have worked your way through the first half of the book, in which the kanji are introduced for the first time, move on to the practice exercises in the second half of the book. These practice exercises will allow you to use the 103 kanji you have learned, plus your existing knowledge of hiragana and katakana, to write real vocabulary words, which is a great way to reinforce and remember the kanji. Each exercise gives particular emphasis to the four kanji given in the heading, and you should find that as you work your way through the exercises that your writing becomes smoother and your recall of the characters easier. The more vocabulary words you learn, and the more you practice writing them, the easier it becomes to memorize the kanji!

頑張ってください。

Ganbatte kudasai!

Try your best (and good luck)!