About Kanji

About Kanji Characters

The earliest writing systems of both East and West were pictographs; pictures which represented ideas. In the West, a few of these characters were simplified and came to represent the sounds of the spoken language, phonetic writing systems prevailing. In this way for example, the picture of a human eye became the letter "A". In China, the pictographic system remained intact into the current age. But in modern Japan, owing to the grammatical and morphological differences between Chinese and Japanese, both methods co-exist in one written language.

In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, immigrating Chinese and Koreans brought the written characters known as Kanji, or Han Period (206 BC - 220 AD) characters to Japan. The symbols actually originated in Hwang Ho (Yellow River) region of China around 2000 BC and some 3,000 from this era have been discovered on various artifacts. At the time these symbols were imported into Japanese, the Japanese language only existed in spoken form. Hence Chinese characters were borrowed over a 400 year period in which the Japanese oral language evolved into a modern written one.

	Type of Readings (Pronunciation)
Kun-yomi:	Chinese characters came to be used as a way to express Japanese spoken words of similar meaning. In modern times, when Kanji are used in a word of native Japanese origin, the pronunciation of that character is called a Kun-yomi "reading", and is usually followed by an inflectional stem written with Hiragana script known as the Okurigana (or kana which follow).
On-yomi:	Attempts to pronounce the Chinese reading, or On-yomi reading, also entered into the Japanese linguistic system, along with the Chinese meaning. A little contemplation of this situation should shed some insight as to the reason why Kanji alone usually have Kun-yomi readings, and Kanji in compounds usually have On-yomi readings. Additionally, due to the constant evolution and change of the Japanese language, most modern Kanji have about 2 or 3 Kun-yomi and 2 or 3 On-yomi readings each. Thus the addition of Chinese characters to Japanese increased in the number of concepts and methods of expression available to Japanese speakers, with the creation of many new terms and compounds. Comparatively, a similiar effect occured in the English language with the adaptation of Latin.

"My research also disclosed the fact that one-fourth of the characters in general use in Japanese writing and printing occur in three-fourths of the most frequently occuring words in the spoken and written languages. This means that mastering the content of this book will lead the student of Japanese to powerful control of the language." - The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power.

Types of Kanji

These days we study A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters to learn the history of Kanji morphology and meaning. But the study of Kanji "etymology" is actually quite old. In fact, "Shuo Wen Chie Tsu", the first Chinese dictionary and the earliest known text to study the pictorial origin of Chinese characters, was written in the 2nd century AD. This ancient book divided Kanji into six basic classifications. These are still the same classifications we use in modern times:

Shôkei Moji:	Simple pictographs of objects like a tree.
Shiji Moji:	Simple symbols representing abstract concepts like below or above.
Kaii Moji:	An ideograph, combining pictographs and symbols to express a complex idea.
Keisei Moji:	A category of phonetic-ideographs, which contains 85% of all Kanji, combining elements of semantic meaning with elements of phonetic meaning.
Tenchû Moji:	Characters whose meaning or pronunciation have been changed by borrowing of the character to represent other sounds and ideas.
Kasha Moji:	Pure phonetic characters, established as a sort of Kanji syllabary used to express verb inflection before the invention of the Kana.

"Although various measures have been taken to simplify the task of reading Japanese (and, therefore, learning to read it), none to date has taken advantage of the most significant research in history on the frequency of Chinese characters in Japanese orthography, as well as the frequency of occurence of words that are formed by combinations of the characters." - The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power.

Japanese Only

In addition to the 6 traditional categories of Chinese characters, a seventh category exist for Kanji that have originated from within Japan:

Kokuji:

The Kokuji are just a small number of Kanji that have originated from within Japan. Kokuji always have Kun-yomi readings, and never have On-Yomi readings.

Kaisho:

Perhaps it should be mentioned, that while considerable standardization of characters existed in China as early as 300 BC, the square printed style writing, or Kaisho, which prototypes today's modern Kanji, was established around 200 AD.

Tadayuki Tsugawa, Editor, Hawaii Times - on The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power: "Keep a copy nearby as a tool to learn this difficult language in an easy manner."

Jôyô Kanji: Thus by the time of "Shuo Wen Chie Tsu" in the second century, Chinese characters had been both standardized, and categorized lexicographically, and the number of standardized characters had already grown to some 50,000. As any Chinese character can in principle be a Japanese Kanji, some Japanese dictionaries listed about 50,000 as late as the Second World War. However, during the occupation of Japan in 1946, Monbusho, or the Japanese Ministry of Education, began the task of simplifying the language. At that time, the general public's ability to read newspapers and magazines required knowledge of at least 4,000 Kanji.

"To reiterate, with this manual the serious student of Japanese can know immediately, with the turn of its pages, the relative importance and scope of use of a particular character, as well as other important characters that occur with it in compounds." - The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power.

So, after careful research on character frequency within the language, Japan's Ministry of Education established 1,850 "Appropriate Use Characters" in 1946 called the Tôyô Kanji, and declared that only these Kanji should be used in printed public material such as newspapers (with the exception of an additional 284 Kanji which might be found in personal nouns and family names, known as the Jinmei-yô). The first 881 of these characters were known as the Kyôiku, or "Educational Kanji" (all of which are drawn for the reader in a Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese). Monbusho required all Japanese childen to master the Kyôiku prior to finishing six years of elementary school education. Thus the Kyôiku half of the Tôyô are considered the essential characters. Studies demonstrated that mastery of the Kyôiku Kanji alone allowed the Japanese student to read 90% of all written material in Japan, and mastery of the entire Tôyô set allowed the student to read 99%.

Rolomail Trading Company invites you to obtain a beautiful set of 3 Kanji Wall Charts displaying the entire Joyo Kanji set.

Prof. John Young, University of Hawaii - on The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power: "This work will offer invaluable help to the student. Such a reference manual will be an efficient resource. To date such a manual has not been available to the student of Japanese. I am certain that this addition will be happily received and greatly appreciated."

In 1977, the Kyôiku Kanji were revised to include 996 characters. Then in 1992, students were required to also learn the ten roman numerals now common in Japanese, during the first six years of grade of school. The new set of 1,006 characters became known as the Gakushû Kanji, or "Study characters". Also, from 1981 onward, the 1,850 Tôyô Kanji (Appropriate Use) were replaced by 1,945 officially designated Jôyô Kanji, or "General Use Characters". All 1,945 can be studied from A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters High school graduates are now must master 95 more characters than necessary during the 1st revision in 1946, but the organization of the set, especially with respect to the Gakushû Kanji, is based on frequency in natural language. Thus time spent studying the earliest Jôyô grades will yield the greatest return to the student. For this reason we highly suggest owning Professor Crowley's The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power, as the book concentrates on the 500 most frequently encountered Kanji, and how these characters are important in both written and spoken comprehension.

Remembering the Kanji I : Jim Heisig's Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of the 1,945 Jôyô Kanji.

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