Introduction to Kanji

Introduction

So far, you have learned two Japanese writing systems—ひらがな and かたかな. Together, these form the phonetic writing system called かな, where each character represents a sound. Japanese also uses a third writing system called 漢字（かんじ）, which is non-phonetic: each character carries meaning as well as sound. Kanji were introduced from China around the 4th century. Over time, simplified forms of kanji developed into ひらがな and かたかな, as illustrated below.

Kanji	加	奈	Original kanji
Katakana	カ	ナ	parts taken from kanji; straight lines and angles
Hiragana	か	な	simplified from kanji; rounder, softer lines

In everyday Japanese writing, all three character sets are used together. 漢字（かんじ） are mainly used for content words such as nouns (本 book, 車 car), verbs (来ます come), and adjectives (白い white, 有名な famous). ひらがな are used for grammatical elements, including particles (は, が, を) and the conjugational endings of verbs and adjectives. かたかな are used for words of foreign origin (スミス Smith), non-human sounds (ワンワン dogs barking, ガチャガチャ clattering machines), and onomatopoeic expressions (キラキラ sparkling, ポカポカ pleasantly warm). In addition to ひらがな, かたかな, and 漢字, written Japanese also commonly uses Roman letters and Arabic numerals. As a result, even a short headline or a small newspaper advertisement often contains a mixture of five different writing systems.

Although tens of thousands of kanji exist, only about 3,000 are actually used in modern Japanese. Among these, approximately 1,950 characters have been officially designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education as 常用漢字（じょうようかんじ）, or kanji for general use. Within this group, about 1,000 characters are further classified as 教育漢字（きょういくかんじ）, or kanji for educational use. By the end of 9th grade, Japanese students are expected to read and write all 教育漢字 and to read all 常用漢字. Most Japanese publications—such as books, journals, and newspapers—generally restrict themselves to 常用漢字, which are sufficient for everyday communication. When kanji outside the 常用漢字 list appear in print, their pronunciation is typically provided as reading aids placed above or beside the character. These aids are called よみがな, also known as ruby text, as illustrated below.

Unlike ひらがな and かたかな, in which each character represents a sound, kanji characters represent meaning. For example, the concept water—written in English as water or symbolically as H₂O—is expressed in Japanese with the kanji 水, pronounced みず, and the character itself means “water.” Because kanji directly encode meaning, they are often described as logographic (or ideographic). In English, letters represent sounds, which then lead to meaning; in kanji, the character represents meaning first, which then cues its pronunciation. Kanji generally have two types of readings. The first is くんよみ (kun readings), which are of native Japanese origin. The second is おんよみ (on readings), which are based on historical Chinese pronunciations adapted into Japanese. Most kanji used in modern Japanese have at least one on reading and one kun reading, and many have multiple readings of each type. Some kanji, however, have on readings only. As a result, the same kanji may be pronounced differently depending on context. For example, the kanji 本 is pronounced ほん in 日本 (“Japan”) but もと in 山本 (Yamamoto, a family name). Similarly, 人 is read as じん in 日本人 (“Japanese people”) but as ひと in 日本の人 (“people in Japan”).

It is also common for different, unrelated kanji to share the same pronunciation. These kanji are not interchangeable, because each represents a different meaning. For example, 買う（かう） means to buy, whereas 書く（かく） means to write. Even though their pronunciations may sound similar, the kanji—and their meanings—are entirely different. Therefore, it is important to learn which kanji corresponds to which word, not just how the word is pronounced.

Kanji characters can be categorized into one of the following four types.

1. pictographs, or simplified pictures of physical objects
   

   = mountain

   = eye

   
   
2. symbol characters, which represent abstract ideas
   

   = above

   = below

   
   
3. ideographs, or meaningful combinations of two or more pictographs or symbols
   

   = tree

   = woods/grove

   = forest

   
   
4. phonetic-ideographic characters, or those made up of a semantic (meaning) element and phonetic (sounding) element
   

   モン, gate +	mouth		モン, to ask
   grass +	カ, transform		カ, flower

2: Stroke Order and Direction

Stroke order and direction are very important in writing kanji. Note the following rules of writing kanji.

• Horizontal strokes go from left to right, top to bottom.
  
  

  
• Vertical strokes go from top to bottom, left to right.
  
  

  
• A box is completed in the following order. You close the box last.
  
  

  
  

There are three distinct types of stroke endings used in writing kanji as shown below.

stop

release

hook

3: Which Kanji Fonts to Use?

The same kanji character may appear in different shapes depending on the font. When learning kanji for the first time, you should always learn to write kanji in the handwriting-style form (shown at the top left below). Other font styles are important to recognize when reading, but they should not be used when writing kanji by hand.

Handwriting Font (Kyokashotai Font) (Learn to write in this style.)	Printed Font (Mincho Font) (For recognition only)
Brush Stroke Font (Gyosho Font) (For recognition only)	Your Default Computer Font (For recognition only)
	田中日本山上下人 一二三四五六七八九十 学生先私外大小

If your computer cannot access an appropriate Japanese font, it may substitute a non–Japanese-based font instead. When this happens, some kanji may appear in non-standard forms. These non-standard shapes can differ significantly from conventional Japanese kanji and, in some cases, may even be unfamiliar or unrecognizable to native Japanese readers.