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UNDERSTANDING KANJI

The oldest Chinese characters, the precursors of kanji, originated more than 3,000 years ago. Originally they were simple illustrations of objects and phenomena in everyday life, and developed as a writing tool mainly characterized by pictography and ideography. Thus each of the Chinese characters carries its own meaning within itself.

Chinese characters, or kanji, can be classified according to origin and structure into four main categories:

1. Pictographic characters are derived from the shapes of concrete objects.

2. Sign characters are composed of points and lines that express abstract ideas.

3. Ideographic characters are composed of combinations of other characters.

4. Phonetic-ideographic characters are composed of combinations of ideographic and phonetic elements. Upper parts or righthand parts often indicate the reading of the kanji. About 90% of all kanji fall into this category.

The Japanese had no writing symbols until kanji were introduced from China in the fifth century. Soon after this, kanji were simplified into phonetic symbols known as hiragana and katakana. Thus the Japanese language came to be written in combinations of kanji and kana (see page 9).

This kanji-kana writing system is more effective than writing with kana only. As the written Japanese language doesn’t leave spaces between words, kanji among kana make it easier for readers to distinguish units of meaning and to understand the context. Readers can easily grasp the rough meaning of written text by following kanji only.

Kanji can usually be read two ways. These readings are referred to as on-yomi and kun-yomi. On-yomi is the Japanese reading taken from the original Chinese pronunciation. Kun-yomi is the pronunciation of an original Japanese word applied to a kanji according to its meaning. Hiragana added after kun-yomi readings are called okurigana. Okurigana primarily indicates the inflectional ending of a kanji, though the last part of the stem is occasionally included in the okurigana.

Most kanji are composed of two or more elements, and parts of one kanji are often found in different compounds in other kanji. Certain commonly shared parts are called radicals, or bushu in Japanese. Radicals are used to classify kanji in dictionaries; thus each kanji is allocated only one radical. Each radical also carries a core meaning. For example, the radical 言 means “word” or “speak.” Therefore the kanji 語 (language), 話 (speak, story), 読 (read), 記 (note down), and 論 (discuss) all have something to do with the meaning of 言.

There are 214 radicals altogether. Some frequently seen radicals are listed below.

1. 冫 ice

2. 彳 step

3. 女 woman

4. 刂 knife

5. 广 slanting roof

6. 尸 corpse

7. 禾 grain

8. 糸 thread

9. 門 gate

10. 灬 fire

Kanji strokes are written in a fixed direction and order. There are several fundamental rules for writing the strokes.

1. Horizontal strokes: from left to right

2. Vertical or slanting strokes: from top to bottom

3. Hook strokes: from top left to right or left bottom

4. The center stroke first, followed by the left and right strokes

5. The outside strokes first, followed by the middle strokes

6. The horizontal stroke first, followed by the vertical stroke (usually followed by another horizontal stroke)

7. The left-hand slanting stroke first, followed by the right-hand side

As your knowledge of kanji increases, kanji dictionaries become more helpful. There are three ways to refer to a kanji.

1. Look for the kanji by radical in the bushu (radical) index.

2. Look for the kanji by stroke number in the kakusū (stroke number) index.

3. Look for the kanji by pronunciation in the on-kun reading index.