Kanji

This article is about the Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing. For other uses, see Kanji (disambiguation).

Kanji (/ˈkæn.dʒi, ˈkɑːn.-/; Template:Langx, hiragana: かんじ, Katakana: カンジ, ja, Template:Gloss) are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in the writing of Japanese. They comprised a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used today, along with the subsequently derived syllabic (phonographic) scripts of Template:Translit and Template:Translit. Most Kanji characters have two pronunciations: kun'yomi, based on the sounds of vernacular Japanese, where the Kanji is often phonetically transcribed with furigana; and on'yomi, based on the imitation of the original Middle Chinese sound when it was borrowed from written Chinese. Some Kanji characters were indigenously invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters.

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the Kanji characters, now known as shinjitai (新字体, Template:Gloss), by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the general public. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communication.

The term Template:Translit is a direct borrowing and phonetic reading (on'yomi) of the Chinese word hanzi (traditional Chinese: 漢字; simplified Chinese: 汉字; pinyin: hànzì), which is one of the formal terms used when referring to Chinese characters. The significant use of Chinese characters in Japan first began to take hold around the 5th century CE and has since had a profound influence in shaping Japanese culture, language, literature, history, and records. Inkstone artifacts at archaeological sites dating back to the earlier Yayoi period were also found to contain Chinese characters.

Although some characters, as used in Japanese and Chinese, have similar meanings and pronunciations, others have meanings or pronunciations that are unique to one language or the other. For example, 誠 means 'honest' in both languages but is pronounced Template:Translit or Template:Translit in Japanese, and Template:Translit in Standard Mandarin Chinese. Individual kanji characters and multi-kanji words invented in Japan from Chinese morphemes have been borrowed into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese in recent times. These are known as Wasei-kango, or Japanese-made Chinese words. For example, the word for telephone, 電話 Template:Translit in Japanese, was derived from the Chinese words for "electric" and "conversation." It was then calqued as Template:Translit in Mandarin Chinese, điện thoại in Vietnamese and 전화 Template:Translit in Korean. Template:Japanese writing Template:Table Hanzi

History

File:Nihonshoki tanaka version.jpg

Nihon Shoki (720 CE), considered by historians and archaeologists as the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan, was written entirely in kanji.

Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China. The earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Wa emissary in 57 CE. Chinese coins as well as inkstones from the first century CE have also been found in Yayoi period archaeological sites. However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the fifth century CE, when writing in Japan became more widespread. According to the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, a semi-legendary scholar called Wani was dispatched to Japan by the Kingdom of Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters.

The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court. For example, the diplomatic correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 CE has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Later, groups of people called Template:Translit were organized under the monarch to read and write Classical Chinese. During the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court.

In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, called Template:Translit (木簡). These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far were written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to the 7th century, a record of trading for cloth and salt.

The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during the Heian period (794–1185), a system known as Template:Translit emerged, which involved using Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to read Chinese sentences and restructure them into Japanese on the fly, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar. This was essentially a kind of codified sight translation.

Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacular Japanese language, resulting in the modern Template:Translit syllabaries. Around 650 CE, a writing system called Template:Translit (used in the ancient poetry anthology Man'yōshū) evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Template:Translit written in cursive style evolved into Template:Translit (literally "fluttering Template:Translit" in reference to the motion of the brush during cursive writing), or Template:Translit, that is, "ladies' hand", a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education). Major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in Template:Translit. Template:Translit (literally "partial Template:Translit", in reference to the practice of using a part of a kanji character) emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified Template:Translit to a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems, Template:Translit and Template:Translit, referred to collectively as Template:Translit, are descended from kanji. In contrast with Template:Translit (仮名, literally "borrowed name", in reference to the character being "borrowed" as a label for its sound), kanji are also called Template:Translit (真名, literally "true name", in reference to the character being used as a label for its meaning).

In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usually content words such as nouns, adjective stems, and verb stems), while Template:Translit are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings, phonetic complements to disambiguate readings (Template:Translit), particles, and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji are considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember. Template:Translit are mostly used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords (except those borrowed from ancient Chinese), the names of plants and animals (with exceptions), and for emphasis on certain words.

Orthographic reform and lists of kanji

Main article: Japanese script reform

File:Yōshū Chikanobu Shin Bijin No. 20.jpg

A young woman practicing kanji. Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1897.

Since ancient times, there has been a strong opinion in Japan that kanji is the orthodox form of writing, but others have argued against it. Kamo no Mabuchi, a scholar of the Edo period, criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters in Template:Translit characters and argued for the limitation of kanji.

After the Meiji Restoration and as Japan entered an era of active exchange with foreign countries, the need for script reform in Japan began to be called for. Some scholars argued for the abolition of kanji and the writing of Japanese using only Template:Translit or Latin characters. These views were not widespread.

However, the need to limit the number of kanji characters was understood, and in May 1923, the Japanese government announced 1,962 kanji characters for regular use. In 1940, the Japanese Army decided on the "Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names" (兵器名称用制限漢字表, heiki meishō yō seigen kanji hyō) which limited the number of kanji that could be used for weapons names to 1,235. In 1942, the National Language Council announced the "Standard Kanji Table" (標準漢字表, hyōjun kanji-hyō) with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society.

In 1946, after World War II and under the Allied occupation of Japan, the Japanese government, guided by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, instituted a series of orthographic reforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals.

The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called shinjitai (新字体). Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged.

These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known as hyōgaiji (表外字).

Template:Translit kanji

Main article: Kyōiku kanji

The kyōiku kanji (教育漢字, lit. "education kanji") are the 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as the gakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō (学年別漢字配当表), or the gakushū kanji (学習漢字). This list of kanji is maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education and prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade.

Template:Translit kanji

Main article: Jōyō kanji

The jōyō kanji (常用漢字, regular-use kanji) are 2,136 characters consisting of all the Template:Translit kanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given Template:Translit. The Template:Translit kanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as the tōyō kanji (当用漢字, general-use kanji), introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, the Template:Translit kanji list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previously Template:Translit kanji; some are used to write prefecture names: 阪, 熊, 奈, 岡, 鹿, 梨, 阜, 埼, 茨, 栃 and 媛.

Template:Translit kanji

Main article: Jinmeiyō kanji

As of September 25, 2017, the jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字, kanji for use in personal names) consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants of Template:Translit kanji. There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the term Template:Translit kanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both the Template:Translit and Template:Translit lists combined.

Template:Translit kanji

Main article: Hyōgai kanji

Hyōgai kanji (表外漢字, "unlisted characters") are any kanji not contained in the Template:Translit kanji and Template:Translit kanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, but [[extended shinjitai|extended Template:Translit]] forms exist.

Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji

The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and Template:Translit define character code-points for each kanji and Template:Translit, as well as other forms of writing such as the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic script, Greek alphabet, Arabic numerals, etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:

• JIS X 0208, the most recent version of the main standard. It has 6,355 kanji.
• JIS X 0212, a supplementary standard containing a further 5,801 kanji. This standard is rarely used, mainly because the common Shift JIS encoding system could not use it. This standard is effectively obsolete.
• JIS X 0213, a further revision which extended the JIS X 0208 set with 3,695 additional kanji, of which 2,743 (all but 952) were in JIS X 0212. The standard is in part designed to be compatible with Shift JIS encoding.
• JIS X 0221:1995, the Japanese version of the ISO 10646/Unicode standard.

Gaiji

"Gaiji" redirects here. Not to be confused with gaijin.

Gaiji (外字, literally "external characters") are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese encoding systems. These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventional glyph in reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well.

Gaiji can be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products. Both are a problem for information interchange, as the code point used to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another.

Gaiji were nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940. JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated to gaiji, making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved to Unicode negating the need for Template:Translit for most users. Historically, gaiji were used by Japanese mobile service providers for emoji.

Unicode allows for optional encoding of gaiji in private use areas, while Adobe's SING (Smart INdependent Glyphlets) technology allows the creation of customized gaiji.

The Text Encoding Initiative uses a ⟨g⟩ element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji. The g stands for gaiji.

Total number of kanji

There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. The Template:Translit, which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. The Template:Translit, published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but the majority of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or archaic forms.

A list of 2,136 [[jōyō kanji|Template:Translit kanji]] is regarded as necessary for functional literacy in Japanese. Approximately a thousand more characters are commonly used and readily understood by the majority in Japan and a few thousand more find occasional use, particularly in specialized fields of study but those may be obscure to most out of context. A total of 13,108 characters can be encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji.

Readings

Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words or morphemes, leading to different pronunciations or "readings." The correct reading may be determined by contextual cues (such as whether the character represents part of a compound word versus an independent word), the exact intended meaning of the word, and its position within the sentence. For example, 今日 is mostly read Template:Translit, meaning "today", but in formal writing it is read Template:Translit, meaning "nowadays". Template:Translit is used to specify ambiguous readings, such as rare, literary, or otherwise non-standard readings.

Readings are categorized as either kun'yomi (訓読み) (literally "meaning reading"), native Japanese, or on'yomi (音読み) (literally "sound reading"), borrowed from Chinese. Most kanji have at least a single reading of each category, though some have only one, such as kiku (菊, "chrysanthemum", an Template:Translit-reading) or iwashi (鰯, "sardine", a Template:Translit-reading); Japanese-coined kanji (Template:Translit) often only have Template:Translit readings.

Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example is 生, which is read as Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit, and Template:Translit, totaling eight basic readings (the first two are Template:Translit, while the rest are Template:Translit), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct.

Template:Translit (Sino-Japanese reading)

Main article: On'yomi

The on'yomi (音読み, ja, Template:Lit. "sound(-based) reading"), the Sino-Japanese reading, is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. It was often previously referred to as translation reading, as it was recreated readings of the Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. There also exist kanji created by the Japanese and given an Template:Translit reading despite not being a Chinese-derived or a Chinese-originating character. Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple Template:Translit, and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan (Template:Translit) would not normally be expected to have Template:Translit, but there are exceptions, such as the character 働 "to work", which has the Template:Translit "Template:Translit" and the Template:Translit "Template:Translit", and 腺 "gland", which has only the Template:Translit "Template:Translit"—in both cases these come from the Template:Translit of the phonetic component, respectively 動 "Template:Translit" and 泉 "Template:Translit".

Template:Translit (native reading)

Main article: Kun'yomi

The kun'yomi (訓読み, ja, lit. "meaning reading"), the native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or Template:Translit, that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. As with Template:Translit, there can be multiple Template:Translit for the same kanji, and some kanji have no Template:Translit at all.

Template:Translit

Main article: Ateji

Ateji (当て字) are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form of Template:Translit, narrowly Template:Translit). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also special cases where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.

The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in Chinese varieties, where there are literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus form doublets and are generally similar, analogous to different Template:Translit, reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese.

Gairaigo

Longer readings exist for non-Template:Translit characters and non-kanji symbols, where a long gairaigo word may be the reading (this is classed as Template:Translit—see single character gairaigo, below)—the character 糎 has the seven Template:Translit reading センチメートル Template:Translit "centimeter", though it is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space); another common example is '%' (the percent sign), which has the five kana reading パーセント Template:Translit.

Mixed readings

File:Jūbako.jpg

A jūbako (重箱), which has a mixed Template:Translit reading

File:Pail,yutou,soba-yu,katori-city,japan.JPG

A yutō (湯桶), which has a mixed Template:Translit reading

There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture of Template:Translit and Template:Translit; these may be considered hybrid words. Readings in which the first kanji is on'yomi and the second is kun'yomi are classified as jūbakoyomi (重箱読み, multi-layered food box reading), while kun-on words are classified as yutōyomi (湯桶読み, hot liquid pail reading). The words jūbako and yutō are themselves examples of the reading patterns they represent (they are autological words). Other examples include basho (場所, "place", Template:Translit), kin'iro (金色, "golden", Template:Translit) and aikidō (合気道, the martial art Aikido", Template:Translit).

Template:Translit often use mixed readings. For instance, the city of Sapporo (サッポロ), whose name derives from the Ainu language and has no meaning in Japanese, is written with the Template:Translit compound 札幌 (sapporo) (which includes Template:Translit as if it were a purely Template:Translit compound).

Special readings

Gikun (義訓) and jukujikun (熟字訓) are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual Template:Translit or Template:Translit. From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as a nankun (難訓, "difficult reading"), and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character.

Template:Translit are other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is reading Template:Wikt-lang (meaning "cold") as Template:Translit ("winter") rather than the standard readings Template:Translit or Template:Translit, and instead of the usual spelling for Template:Translit of Template:Wikt-lang. Another example is using Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Lit) with the reading Template:Translit ("tobacco") rather than the otherwise-expected readings of Template:Translit or Template:Translit. Some of these, such as for Template:Translit, have become lexicalized, but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided with Template:Translit, Template:Translit could be used to convey complex literary or poetic effect (especially if the readings contradict the kanji), or clarification if the referent may not be obvious.

Template:Translit are when the standard kanji for a word are related to the meaning, but not the sound. The word is pronounced as a whole, not corresponding to sounds of individual kanji. For example, Template:Wikt-lang ("this morning") is Template:Translit. This word is not read as Template:Translit, the expected Template:Translit of the characters, and only infrequently as Template:Translit, the Template:Translit of the characters. The most common reading is Template:Translit, a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a single morpheme, or as a compound of Template:Translit (“this”, as in Template:Translit, the older reading for Template:Wikt-lang, “today”), and Template:Translit, “morning”. Likewise, Template:Wikt-lang ("today") is also Template:Translit, usually read with the native reading Template:Translit; its Template:Translit, Template:Translit, does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in the broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such as Template:Wikt-lang ("present-day"), although in the phrase Template:Translit ("good day"), Template:Translit is typically spelled wholly with Template:Translit rather than with the kanji 今日.

Template:Translit are primarily used for some native Japanese words, such as Template:Wikt-lang or Template:Wikt-lang (Yamato, the name of the dominant ethnic group of Japan and of a former Japanese province, as well as an ancient name for Japan), and for some old borrowings, such as Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, literally "willow leaf fish") from Ainu, Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, literally “smoke grass”) from Portuguese, or Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, literally “wheat alcohol”) from Dutch, especially if the word was borrowed before the Meiji period. Words whose kanji are Template:Translit are often usually written as Template:Translit (if native), or Template:Translit (if borrowed); some old borrowed words are also written as Template:Translit, especially Portuguese loanwords such as Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit) from Portuguese "Template:Wikt-lang" (English "card") or Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit) from Portuguese "Template:Wikt-lang" (English “times, season”), as well as Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit).

A case where jukujikun is used for Sino-Japanese is the word kyōdai, which, prototypically, means "brothers" and is spelt Template:RubyTemplate:Ruby ("big and little brothers"). However, the meaning has been expanded to "siblings" in general, and can assume such spellings as Template:RubyTemplate:Ruby ("(big and little) sisters", alternatively pronounced shimai), Template:RubyTemplate:Ruby ("big brother and little sister") and Template:RubyTemplate:Ruby ("big sister and little brother"). It is also possible to say otoko kyōdai ("male siblings; brothers") and onna kyōdai ("female siblings; sisters").

Sometimes, Template:Translit can even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples being Template:Translit (Template:Wikt-lang, “woodpecker”), Template:Translit (Template:Wikt-lang, “silver berry, oleaster”), and Template:Translit (Template:Wikt-lang, a surname). This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example when Template:Wikt-lang, normally read as Template:Translit, is shortened to Template:Translit in Template:Wikt-lang Template:Translit, although zoological names are commonly spelled with katakana rather than with kanji. Outside zoology, this type of shortening only occurs on a handful of words, for example Template:Wikt-lang Template:Translit, or the historical male name suffix Template:Wikt-lang Template:Translit, which was shortened from the word Template:Translit.

The kanji compound for Template:Translit is often idiosyncratic and created for the word, and there is no corresponding Chinese word with that spelling. In other cases, a kanji compound for an existing Chinese word is reused, where the Chinese word and Template:Translit may or may not be used in Japanese. For example, Template:Wikt-lang ("reindeer") is Template:Translit for Template:Translit, from Ainu, but the Template:Translit reading of Template:Translit is also used. In some cases, Japanese coinages have subsequently been borrowed back into Chinese, such as Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "monkfish").

The underlying word for Template:Translit is a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (either Template:Translit or Template:Translit) or for which a new kanji spelling is produced. Most often the word is a noun, which may be a simple noun (not a compound or derived from a verb), or may be a verb form or a fusional pronunciation. For example, the word Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "sumo") is originally from the verb Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, “to vie, to compete”), while Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "today") is fusional (from older Template:Translit, "this" + Template:Translit, "day").

In rare cases, Template:Translit is also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectional Template:Translit is the adjective Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, “cute”), originally Template:Translit; the word (可愛) is used in Chinese, but the corresponding Template:Translit is not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be either Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, as Template:Translit) or Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, as Template:Translit). Which reading to use can be discerned by the presence or absence of the Template:Translit ending (Template:Translit). A common example of a verb with Template:Translit is Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, “to spread, to be in vogue”), corresponding to Template:Translit Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit). A sample Template:Translit deverbal (noun derived from a verb form) is Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "extortion"), from Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, “to extort”), spelling from Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "extortion"). Note that there are also compound verbs and, less commonly, compound adjectives, and while these may have multiple kanji without intervening characters, they are read using the usual Template:Translit. Examples include Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "interesting", literally "face + white") and Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Translit, "sly", Template:Lit "cunning, crafty + clever, smart").

Typographically, the Template:Translit for Template:Translit are often written so they are centered across the entire word, or for inflectional words over the entire root—corresponding to the reading being related to the entire word—rather than each part of the word being centered over its corresponding character, as is often done for the usual phono-semantic readings.

Single character gairaigo

In some rare cases, kanji may have a reading borrowed from a modern foreign language (gairaigo), though usually gairaigo are written in Template:Translit. Notable examples include pēji (頁、ページ, page), botan (釦／鈕、ボタン, button), zero (零、ゼロ, zero), and mētoru (米、メートル, meter). These are classed as Template:Translit, because the character is used for its meaning—the kun'yomi label may sometimes be misleading, since most kun'yomi are native Japanese readings. The readings are also rendered in Template:Translit, unlike the usual Template:Translit for native Template:Translit. Note that most of these characters are for units, particularly SI units, in many cases using new characters (Template:Translit) coined during the Meiji period, such as kiromētoru (粁、キロメートル, kilometer, 米 "meter" + 千 "thousand").

Template:Translit

Main article: Nanori

Some kanji also have lesser-known readings called nanori (名乗り), which are mostly used for names (often given names) and, in general, are closely related to the Template:Translit. Place names sometimes also use Template:Translit or, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere.

When to use which reading

Although there are general rules for when to use Template:Translit and when to use Template:Translit, many kanji have multiple on- or kun-readings, and the language is littered with exceptions; how a character was meant to be read is sometimes ambiguous even to native speakers (this is especially true for names, both of people and places).

A single kanji followed by Template:Translit (Template:Translit forming part of a word)—such as the inflectable suffixes forming native verbs and adjectives like 赤い (akai; red) and 見る (miru; to see)—always indicates Template:Translit. Template:Translit can indicate which Template:Translit to use, as in 食べる (Template:Translit) versus 食う (Template:Translit), both meaning "(to) eat", but this is not always sufficient, as in 開く, which may be read as Template:Translit or Template:Translit, both meaning "(to) open".

Kanji compounds (Template:Translit), especially yojijukugo, usually, but not always, use Template:Translit, usually (but not always) Template:Translit. In ge-doku (解毒, detoxification, anti-poison), 解 is read with its kan-on reading instead of its more common go-on reading, Template:Translit. Exceptions are common—情報 (Template:Translit; information), for example, is go-kan. 牛肉 (Template:Translit; beef) and 羊肉 (Template:Translit; mutton) have Template:Translit readings, but 豚肉 (Template:Translit; pork) and 鶏肉 (Template:Translit; poultry) have Template:Translit readings. Examples of fully kun'yomi compounds include 手紙 (Template:Translit; letter), 日傘 (Template:Translit; parasol), and the infamous 神風 (Template:Translit; divine wind). Some kun'yomi compounds have non-inflective Template:Translit, such as 唐揚げ (Template:Translit; Chinese-style fried chicken) and 折り紙 (Template:Translit); many can also be written with the Template:Translit omitted.

Kanji in isolation are typically read using their Template:Translit; exceptions include the on'yomi 愛 (Template:Translit; love), 禅 (Template:Translit), and 点 (Template:Translit; mark, dot). Most of these on'yomi cases involve kanji that have no Template:Translit. For kanji with multiple common isolated readings, such as 金, which may be read as Template:Translit (gold) or Template:Translit (money, metal), only context can determine the intended reading.

The isolated kanji versus compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations. Alone, 北 (north) and 東 (east) use the Template:Translit Template:Translit and Template:Translit, but 北東 (northeast), uses the Template:Translit Template:Translit. Inconsistencies also occur between compounds; 生 is read as Template:Translit in 先生 (Template:Translit; teacher) but as Template:Translit in 一生 (Template:Translit; one's whole life) (both on'yomi).

Multiple readings have given rise to a number of homographs, in some cases having different meanings depending on how they are read. One example is 上手, which can be read in three different ways: Template:Translit (skilled), Template:Translit (upper part), or Template:Translit (stage left/house right). In addition, 上手い has the reading Template:Translit (skilled). More subtly, 明日 has three different readings, all meaning "tomorrow": Template:Translit (casual), Template:Translit (polite), and Template:Translit (formal).

Conversely, some terms are homophonous but not homographic, and thus ambiguous in speech but not in writing. To remedy this, alternate readings may be used for confusable words. For example, 私立 (privately established, esp. school) and 市立 (municipal) are both normally pronounced Template:Translit; in speech these may be distinguished by the alternative pronunciations Template:Translit and Template:Translit. More informally, in legal jargon 前文 (preamble) and 全文 (full text) are both pronounced Template:Translit, so 前文 may be pronounced Template:Translit for clarity, as in "Have you memorized the preamble [not 'whole text'] of the constitution?". As in these examples, this is primarily done using a Template:Translit for one character in a normally Template:Translit term.

Legalese

Certain words take different readings depending on whether the context concerns legal matters or not. For example:

Word	Common reading	Legalese reading
懈怠 ("negligence")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
競売 ("auction")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
兄弟姉妹 ("siblings")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
境界 ("metes and bounds")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
競落 ("acquisition at an auction")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
遺言 ("will")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
図画 ("imagery")	Template:Translit	Template:Translit

Ambiguous readings

In some instances where even context cannot easily provide clarity for homophones, alternative readings or mixed readings can be used instead of regular readings to avoid ambiguity. For example:

Ambiguous reading	Disambiguated readings
Template:Translit	baishun (売春, "selling sex", on) kaishun (買春, "buying sex", yutō)
Template:Translit	jūkeitei (従兄弟, "male cousin", on) jūshimai (従姉妹, "female cousin", on) jūkei (従兄, "older male cousin", on) jūshi (従姉, "older female cousin", on) jūtei (従弟, "younger male cousin", on) jūmai (従妹, "younger female cousin", on)
Template:Translit	kotobaten (辞典, "word dictionary", yutō) kototen (事典, "encyclopedia", yutō) mojiten (字典, "character dictionary", irregular, from moji (文字, "character"))
Template:Translit	kagaku (科学, "science", on) bakegaku (化学, "chemistry", yutō)
Template:Translit	ayamachiryō (過料, "administrative fine", yutō) togaryō (科料, "misdemeanor fine", yutō)
Template:Translit	Kinoesaru (甲申, "Greater-Wood-Monkey year", kun) Kinoetatsu (甲辰, "Greater-Wood-Dragon year", kun) Kanoesaru (庚申, "Greater-Fire-Monkey year", kun) Kanoetatsu (庚辰, "Greater-Fire-Dragon year", kun)
Template:Translit	Hatashin (秦, "Qin", irregular, from the alternative reading Template:Translit used as a family name) Susumushin (晋, "Jin", irregular, from the alternative reading Template:Translit used as a personal name)
Template:Translit	ichiritsu (市立, "municipal", yutō) watakushiritsu (私立, "private", yutō)

There are also cases where the words are technically heterophones, but they have similar meanings and pronunciations, therefore liable to mishearing and misunderstanding.

Word with an alternative reading	Word that may be confused with
gishu (技手, "assistant engineer", on), alternatively Template:Translit, jūbako	gishi (技師, "engineer", on)
shuchō (首長, "chief", on), alternatively Template:Translit, yutō	shichō (市長, "mayor", on)

Place names

Several famous place names, including those of Japan itself (日本 Template:Translit or sometimes Template:Translit), those of some cities such as Tokyo (東京 Template:Translit) and Kyoto (京都 Template:Translit), and those of the main islands Honshu (本州 Template:Translit), Kyushu (九州 Template:Translit), Shikoku (四国 Template:Translit), and Hokkaido (北海道 Template:Translit) are read with Template:Translit; however, the majority of Japanese place names are read with Template:Translit: 大阪 Template:Translit, 青森 Template:Translit, 箱根 Template:Translit. Names often use characters and readings that are not in common use outside of names. When characters are used as abbreviations of place names, their reading may not match that in the original. The Osaka (大阪) and Kobe (神戸) baseball team, the Hanshin (阪神) Tigers, take their name from the Template:Translit of the second kanji of Template:Translit and the first of Template:Translit. The name of the Keisei (京成) railway line—linking Tokyo (東京) and Narita (成田)—is formed similarly, although the reading of 京 from 東京 is Template:Translit, despite Template:Translit already being an Template:Translit in the word Template:Translit.

Japanese family names are also usually read with Template:Translit: 山田 Template:Translit, 田中 Template:Translit, 鈴木 Template:Translit. Japanese given names often have very irregular readings. Although they are not typically considered Template:Translit or Template:Translit, they often contain mixtures of Template:Translit, Template:Translit and Template:Translit, such as 大助 Template:Translit [[[:Template:Translit]]], 夏美 Template:Translit [[[:Template:Translit]]]. Being chosen at the discretion of the parents, the readings of given names do not follow any set rules, and it is impossible to know with certainty how to read a person's name without independent verification. Parents can be quite creative, and rumors abound of children called 地球 Template:Translit ("Earth") and 天使 Template:Translit ("Angel"); neither are common names, and have normal readings Template:Translit and Template:Translit respectively. Some common Japanese names can be written in multiple ways, e.g., Akira can be written as 亮, 彰, 明, 顕, 章, 聴, 光, 晶, 晄, 彬, 昶, 了, 秋良, 明楽, 日日日, 亜紀良, 安喜良 and many other characters and kanji combinations not listed, Satoshi can be written as 聡, 哲, 哲史, 悟, 佐登史, 暁, 訓, 哲士, 哲司, 敏, 諭, 智, 佐登司, 總, 里史, 三十四, 了, 智詞, etc., and Haruka can be written as 遥, 春香, 晴香, 遥香, 春果, 晴夏, 春賀, 春佳, and several other possibilities. Common patterns do exist, however, allowing experienced readers to make a good guess for most names. To alleviate any confusion on how to pronounce the names of other Japanese people, most official Japanese documents require Japanese to write their names in both Template:Translit and kanji.

Chinese place names and Chinese personal names appearing in Japanese texts, if spelled in kanji, are almost invariably read with Template:Translit. Especially for older and well-known names, the resulting Japanese pronunciation may differ widely from that used by modern Chinese speakers. For example, Mao Zedong's name is pronounced as Mō Takutō (毛沢東) in Japanese, and the name of the legendary Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is pronounced Template:Translit (孫悟空) in Japanese.

Today, Chinese names that are not well known in Japan are often spelled in Template:Translit instead, in a form much more closely approximating the native Chinese pronunciation. Alternatively, they may be written in kanji with Template:Translit Template:Translit. Many such cities have names that come from non-Chinese languages like Mongolian or Manchu. Examples of such not-well-known Chinese names include:

English name	Japanese name
	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Kanji
Harbin	Template:Translit	ハルビン	哈爾浜
Ürümqi	Template:Translit	ウルムチ	烏魯木斉
Qiqihar	Template:Translit	チチハル	斉斉哈爾
Lhasa	Template:Translit	ラサ	拉薩

Internationally renowned Chinese-named cities tend to imitate the older English pronunciations of their names, regardless of the kanji's Template:Translit or the Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciation, and can be written in either Template:Translit or kanji. Examples include:

English name	Traditional Chinese Characters	Simplified Chinese Characters	Mandarin name (pinyin)	Shanghainese name (Wugniu)	Hokkien name (Tâi-lô)	Cantonese name (Yale)	Kanji	Template:Translit	Template:Translit
Hong Kong	香港	香港	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit	香港	ホンコン	Template:Translit
Macao/Macau	澳門	澳门	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit	澳門	マカオ	Template:Translit
Shanghai	上海	上海	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit	上海	シャンハイ	Template:Translit
Beijing/Peking	北京	北京	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	北京	ペキン	Template:Translit
Nanjing/Nanking	南京	南京	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	南京	ナンキン	Template:Translit
Taipei	台北/臺北	台北	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	Template:Translit	台北	タイペイ / タイホク	Template:Translit / Template:Translit
Kaohsiung	高雄/打狗	高雄/打狗	Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit / Template:Translit	Template:Translit / Template:Translit	高雄 / 打狗	カオシュン / タカオ	Template:Translit / Template:Translit

Notes:

• Guangzhou, the city, is pronounced Template:Translit, while Guangdong, its province, is pronounced Template:Translit, not Template:Translit (in this case, opting for a Template:Translit reading rather than the usual Template:Translit reading).
• Hangzhou (expected Template:Translit) is often pronounced Template:Translit to disambiguate with Guangzhou.
• Kaohsiung was originally pronounced Template:Translit (or similar) in Hokkien and Japanese. It received this written name (kanji/Chinese) from Japanese, and later its spoken Mandarin name from the corresponding characters. The English name "Kaohsiung" derived from its Mandarin pronunciation. Today it is pronounced either カオシュン or タカオ in Japanese.
• Taipei is generally pronounced たいほく in Japanese.

In some cases the same kanji can appear in a given word with different readings. Normally this occurs when a character is duplicated and the reading of the second character has voicing (Template:Translit), as in 人人 Template:Translit "people" (more often written with the iteration mark as 人々), but in rare cases the readings can be unrelated, as in tobi-haneru (跳び跳ねる, "hop around", more often written 飛び跳ねる).

Pronunciation assistance

Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out in ruby characters known as Template:Translit, (small Template:Translit written above or to the right of the character, e.g. Template:Ruby-ja) or Template:Translit (small Template:Translit written in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners. It is also used in newspapers and Template:Translit for rare or unusual readings, or for situations like the first time a character's name is given, and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji. Works of fiction sometimes use Template:Translit to create new "words" by giving normal kanji non-standard readings, or to attach a foreign word rendered in Template:Translit as the reading for a kanji or kanji compound of the same or similar meaning.

Spelling words

Conversely, specifying a given kanji, or spelling out a kanji word—whether the pronunciation is known or not—can be complicated, due to the fact that there is not a commonly used standard way to refer to individual kanji (one does not refer to "kanji #237"), and that a given reading does not map to a single kanji—indeed there are many homophonous words, not simply individual characters, particularly for Template:Translit (with Template:Translit). It is easiest to write the word out—either on paper or tracing it in the air—or look it up (given the pronunciation) in a dictionary, particularly an electronic dictionary; when this is not possible, such as when speaking over the phone or writing implements are not available (and tracing in air is too complicated), various techniques can be used. These include giving Template:Translit for characters—these are often unique—using a well-known word with the same character (and preferably the same pronunciation and meaning), and describing the character via its components. For example, one may explain how to spell the word kōshinryō (香辛料, spice) via the words kao-ri (香り, fragrance), kara-i (辛い, spicy), and in-ryō (飲料, beverage)—the first two use the Template:Translit, the third is a well-known compound—saying "Template:Translit, Template:Translit, Template:Translit as in Template:Translit."

Dictionaries

In dictionaries, both words and individual characters have readings glossed, via various conventions. Native words and Sino-Japanese vocabulary are glossed in Template:Translit (for both Template:Translit and Template:Translit readings), while borrowings (Template:Translit)—including modern borrowings from Chinese—are glossed in Template:Translit; this is the standard writing convention also used in Template:Translit. By contrast, readings for individual characters are conventionally written in Template:Translit for on readings, and Template:Translit for kun readings. Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters are Template:Translit, and which are considered readings of the character itself. For example, in the entry for 食, the reading corresponding to the basic verb eat (食べる, taberu) may be written as た.べる (ta.beru), to indicate that ta is the reading of the character itself. Further, kanji dictionaries often list compounds including irregular readings of a kanji.

Local developments and divergences from Chinese

Since kanji are essentially Chinese hanzi used to write Japanese, the majority of characters used in modern Japanese still retain their Chinese meaning, physical resemblance with some of their modern traditional Chinese characters counterparts, and a degree of similarity with Classical Chinese pronunciation imported to Japan from the 5th to 9th centuries. Nevertheless, after centuries of development, there is a notable number of kanji used in modern Japanese which have different meaning from hanzi used in modern Chinese. Such differences are the result of:

• the use of characters created in Japan,
• characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and
• post-World War II simplifications (Template:Translit) of the character.

Likewise, the process of character simplification in mainland China since the 1950s has resulted in the fact that Japanese speakers who have not studied Chinese may not recognize some simplified characters.

Template:Translit

Main article: Kokuji

In addition to unique Japanese renditions of existing Chinese characters, there also exist kanji that were invented in Japan; these may be referred to as kokuji (国字, national characters) or wasei kanji (和製漢字, Japanese-made kanji). They are primarily formed by combining existing components in unique ways, as is typical for Chinese characters. The Jōyō list contains about 9 kokuji, of which the most commonly used is Template:Wikt-lang (dō; work) used in the fundamental verb Template:Wikt-lang (hataraku; to work). It is formed from the 'person' radical 亻 plus 動 (movement). Some kokuji, including 働, have entered the Chinese language.

The term kokuji may also refer to Chinese characters coined in other (non-Chinese) countries; the corresponding phenomenon in Korea is called Template:Translit (Korean: 국자; Hanja: 國字; national characters); there are however far fewer Korean-coined characters than Japanese-coined ones. Other languages using the Chinese family of scripts sometimes have far more extensive systems of native characters, most significantly Vietnamese chữ Nôm, which comprises over 20,000 characters used throughout traditional Vietnamese writing, and Zhuang sawndip, which comprises over 10,000 characters, which are still in use.

Template:Translit

In addition to Template:Translit, there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese that are different from their original Chinese meanings. These are not considered Template:Translit but are instead called Template:Translit (国訓) and include characters such as the following:

Char.	Japanese		Chinese
	Reading	Meaning	Pinyin	Meaning
藤	Template:Translit	wisteria	Template:Translit	rattan, cane, vine
沖	Template:Translit	offing, offshore	Template:Translit	rinse, minor river (Cantonese)
椿	Template:Translit	Camellia japonica	Template:Translit	Toona spp.
鮎	Template:Translit	sweetfish	Template:Translit	catfish (rare, usually written 鯰)
咲	Template:Translit	blossom	Template:Translit	smile (rare, usually written 笑)

Types of kanji by category

Main article: Chinese character classification

Han-dynasty scholar Xu Shen, in his 2nd-century dictionary Template:Translit, classified Chinese characters into six categories (Chinese: 六書 Template:Translit, Japanese: 六書 Template:Translit). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and is no longer the focus of modern lexicographic practice, as some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutually exclusive: the first four refer to structural composition, while the last two refer to usage.

Template:Translit (象形文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) characters are pictographic sketches of the object they represent. For example, 目 is an eye, while 木 is a tree. The current forms of the characters are very different from the originals, though their representations are more clear in oracle bone script and seal script. These pictographic characters make up only a small fraction of modern characters.

Template:Translit (指事文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) characters are ideographs, often called "simple ideographs" or "simple indicatives" to distinguish them and tell the difference from compound ideographs (below). They are usually simple graphically and represent an abstract concept such as 上 "up" or "above" and 下 "down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Template:Translit (会意文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) characters are compound ideographs, often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine semantically to present an overall meaning. An example of this type is 休 (rest) from 亻 (person radical) and 木 (tree). Another is the Template:Translit 峠 (mountain pass) made from 山 (mountain), 上 (up) and 下 (down). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

Template:Translit (形声文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) characters are phono-semantic or radical-phonetic compounds, sometimes called "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic", or "phonetic-ideographic" characters, are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of the characters in the standard lists; however, some of the most frequently used kanji belong to one of the three groups mentioned above, so Template:Translit will usually make up less than 90% of the characters in a text. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which (most commonly, but by no means always, the left or top element) suggests the general category of the meaning or semantic context, and the other (most commonly the right or bottom element) approximates the pronunciation. The pronunciation relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japanese Template:Translit of the kanji; it generally has no relation at all to Template:Translit. The same is true of the semantic context, which may have changed over the centuries or in the transition from Chinese to Japanese. As a result, it is a common error in folk etymology to fail to recognize a phono-semantic compound, typically instead inventing a compound-indicative explanation.

Template:Translit (転注文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) characters have variously been called "derivative characters", "derivative cognates", or translated as "mutually explanatory" or "mutually synonymous" characters; this is the most problematic of the six categories, as it is vaguely defined. It may refer to kanji where the meaning or application has become extended. For example, 楽 is used for 'music' and 'comfort, ease', with different pronunciations in Chinese reflected in the two different Template:Translit, Template:Translit "music" and Template:Translit "pleasure".

Template:Translit (仮借文字)

Template:Translit (Mandarin: Template:Translit) are rebuses, sometimes called "phonetic loans". The etymology of the characters follows one of the patterns above, but the present-day meaning is completely unrelated to this. A character was appropriated to represent a similar-sounding word. For example, 来 in ancient Chinese was originally a pictograph for "wheat". Its syllable was homophonous with the verb meaning "to come", and the character is used for that verb as a result, without any embellishing "meaning" element attached. The character for wheat 麦, originally meant "to come", being a Template:Translit having 'foot' at the bottom for its meaning part and "wheat" at the top for sound. The two characters swapped meaning, so today the more common word has the simpler character. This borrowing of sounds has a very long history.

Related symbols

See also: Japanese typographic symbols

The iteration mark (々) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to a ditto mark in English. It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for example iroiro (色々, "various") and tokidoki (時々, "sometimes"). This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in the surname Sasaki (佐々木). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji 仝, a variant of dō (同, "same").

Another abbreviated symbol is ヶ, in appearance a small Template:Translit Template:Translit, but actually a simplified version of the kanji 箇, a general counter. It is pronounced Template:Translit when used to indicate quantity (such as 六ヶ月, Template:Translit "six months") or Template:Translit if used as a genitive (as in 関ヶ原 Template:Translit "Sekigahara").

The way how these symbols may be produced on a computer depends on the operating system. In macOS, typing じおくり will reveal the symbol 々 as well as ヽ, ゝ and ゞ. To produce 〻, type おどりじ. Under Windows, typing くりかえし will reveal some of these symbols, while in Google IME, おどりじ may be used.

Collation

Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by conventions such as those used for the Latin script, are often collated using the traditional Chinese radical-and-stroke sorting method. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are called radicals. Characters are grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. For example, the kanji character 桜, meaning "cherry", is sorted as a ten-stroke character under the four-stroke primary radical 木 meaning "tree". When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation.

Other kanji sorting methods, such as the SKIP system, have been devised by various authors.

Modern general-purpose Japanese dictionaries (as opposed to specifically character dictionaries) generally collate all entries, including words written using kanji, according to their Template:Translit representations (reflecting the way they are pronounced). The Template:Translit ordering of Template:Translit is normally used for this purpose.

Kanji education

File:3002 Kanji.svg

An image that lists most Template:Translit-kanji, according to Halpern's KKLD indexing system, with kyo-iku kanji color-coded by grade level

Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,026 basic kanji, the [[kyōiku kanji|Template:Translit kanji]], before finishing the sixth grade. The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. The Template:Translit kanji list is a subset of a larger list, originally of 1,945 kanji and extended to 2,136 in 2010, known as the [[jōyō kanji|Template:Translit kanji]] required for the level of fluency necessary to read newspapers and literature in Japanese. This larger list of characters is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade. Schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition and radical.

Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required by a curriculum to acquire kanji without having first learned the vocabulary associated with them. Strategies for these learners vary from copying-based methods to mnemonic-based methods such as those used in James Heisig's series Remembering the Kanji. Other textbooks use methods based on the etymology of the characters, such as Mathias and Habein's The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji and Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Pictorial mnemonics, as in the text Kanji Pict-o-graphix by Michael Rowley, are also seen.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation provides the Template:Translit (日本漢字能力検定試験 Template:Translit; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude"), which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The highest level of the Template:Translit tests about six thousand kanji.

See also

• Chinese influence on Japanese culture
• Braille kanji
• Hanja (Korean equivalent)
• Chữ Hán (Vietnamese equivalent)
• Han unification
• Chinese family of scripts
• Japanese script reform
• Japanese typefaces (Template:Translit)
• Japanese writing system
• Kanji of the year
• List of kanji by stroke count
• Radical (Chinese character)
• Stroke order
• Table of kanji radicals
• Template:Translit – method of writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet
• Cangjie – legendary inventor of Chinese characters

References

Sources

• DeFrancis, John (1990). The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1068-6.
• Hadamitzky, W.; Spahn, M. (1981). Kanji and Kana. Boston: Tuttle.
• Hannas, William. C. (1997). Asia's Orthographic Dilemma. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1892-X.
• Kaiser, Stephen (1991). "Introduction to the Japanese Writing System". Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide. Tokyo: Kondansha International. ISBN 4-7700-1553-4.
• Miyake, Marc Hideo (2003). Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction. New York, NY; London, England: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-415-30575-6.
• Morohashi, Tetsuji. 大漢和辞典 Dai Kan-Wa Jiten (Comprehensive Chinese–Japanese Dictionary) 1984–1986. Tokyo: Taishukan.
• Mitamura, Joyce Yumi; Mitamura, Yasuko Kosaka (1997). Let's Learn Kanji. Tokyo: Kondansha International. ISBN 4-7700-2068-6.
• Unger, J. Marshall (1996). Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510166-9.

External links

• Jim Breen's WWWJDIC server Archived April 30, 2023, at the Wayback Machine used to find Kanji from English or romanized Japanese
• Change in Script Usage in Japanese: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Government White Papers on Labor, discussion paper by Takako Tomoda in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, August 19, 2005.
• Jisho—Online Japanese dictionary

Glyph conversion

• A simple Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter
• A practical Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converter
• A complex Shinjitai—Kyūjitai converter
• A downloadable Shinjitai—Kyūjitai—Simplified Chinese character converter Archived February 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine