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Kanji

*** Shopping-Tip: Kanji
:''This article is about the Japanese use the kanji form of writing; for the Australian shrub, see Kanji bush; for a general discussion of Chinese characters which are also used in various other languages, see Chinese character.'' {{Japanese writing}} '''Kanji''' ({{Audio|ja-kanji.ogg|漢字}}) are the Chinese characters (''Hanzi'') that are used in the modern Japanese language Japanese logogram logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮å??), katakana (片仮å??) and the Romanization of Japanese Roman alphabet.

History
Image:Japanese word "Kanji" (Mincho typeface).png frame|The characters for '''Kanji''', lit. "Han characters". The Japanese language Japanese term ''kanji'' (wikt:漢字 漢字) literally means "Han dynasty Han characters". There is some disagreement about how Chinese characters came to Japan, but it is generally accepted that Buddhism Buddhist monks brought Chinese texts back to Japan in about the 5th century. These texts were in the Chinese language and would have been read as such at first. Over time, however, a system known as ''kanbun'' (漢文) emerged; it essentially used Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to read it in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar. The Japanese language itself had no written form at the time. A writing system called ''manyogana man'yÅ?gana'' (used in the ancient poetry anthology ''Manyoshu Man'yÅ?shÅ«'') evolved that used a limited set of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Man'yÅ?gana written in Grass script curvilinear style became ''hiragana'', a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education). Major works of Heian era literature by women were written in hiragana. ''Katakana'' emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified ''man'yÅ?gana'' to a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems, hiragana and katakana, referred to collectively as ''kana'', are actually descended from kanji. In modern Japanese, kanji is used to write parts of the language such as nouns, adjective word stem stems and verb word stem stems, while ''hiragana'' is used to write inflection inflected verb and adjective endings (''okurigana''), grammatical particle particles, and words where the kanji is too difficult to read or remember. Katakana is used for representing onomatopoeia and gairaigo non-Japanese loanwords. The usage of katakana to write loan words is a very recent phenomenon dating to after World War II. Originally loanwords were written using kanji, either used for their meaning (ç…™è?‰ or 莨 ''tabako''; "tobacco") or to spell the word phonetics phonetically (天婦羅 or 天麩羅 ''tempura'').

Local developments
While kanji are essentially Chinese hanzi used to write Japanese, there are now significant differences between kanji and hanzi, including the use of characters created in Japan, characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese, and post WWII simplifications of the kanji.

Kokuji
''Kokuji'' (国字; literally "national characters") are characters peculiar to Japan. ''Kokuji'' are also known as ''wasei kanji'' (和製漢字; lit. "Chinese characters made in Japan"). There are hundreds of ''kokuji'' (see the [http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/kokuji-list.html sci.lang.japan AFAQ list]). Many are rarely used, but a number have become important additions to the written Japanese language. These include: * å³  ''tÅ?ge'' (mountain pass) * 榊 ''sakaki'' (''sakaki'' tree, genus ''Camellia'') * ç•‘ ''hatake'' (field of crops) * è¾» ''tsuji'' (crossroads, street) * åƒ? ''dÅ?'', ''hatara(ku)'' (work)

Kokkun
In addition to ''kokuji'', there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese different from their original Chinese meanings. These kanji are not considered ''kokuji'' but are instead called ''kokkun'' (国訓) and include characters such as: * æ²– ''oki'' (offing, offshore; Ch. ''chÅ?ng'' rinse) * 森 ''mori'' (forest; Ch. ''sÄ“n'' gloomy, majestic, luxuriant growth) * 椿 ''tsubaki'' (''Camellia japonicus''; Ch. ''chÅ«n'' ''Ailantus'')

Old characters and New Characters
The same kanji character can sometimes be written in two different ways, 旧字体 (''KyÅ«jitai''; lit. "old character") (舊字體 in KyÅ«jitai) and 新字体 (''Shinjitai''; "new character"). The following are some examples of KyÅ«jitai followed by the corresponding Shinjitai: * 國 国 ''kuni'' (country) * 號 å?· ''gÅ?'' (number) * 變 変 ''hen'', ''ka(waru)'' (change) ''KyÅ«jitai'' were used before the end of World War II, and are mostly, if not completely, the same as the Traditional Chinese characters. Occupied Japan After the war the government introduced the simplified ''Shinjitai'' in the "TÅ?yÅ? Kanji Character Form List" (''TÅ?yÅ? Kanji Jitai HyÅ?'', 当用漢字字体表). Some of the new characters are similar to Simplified Chinese character simplified characters used in the People's Republic of China. Also, like the simplification process in China, some of the shinjitai were once abbreviated forms (略字, ''Ryakuji'') used in handwriting, but in contrast with the "proper" unsimplified characters (正字 ''seiji'') were only acceptable in colloquial contexts. [http://kan-chan.stbbs.net/word/ryakuji.html This page] shows examples of these handwritten abbreviations, identical to their modern Shinjitai forms, from the pre WWII era. There are also handwritten simplifications today that are significantly simpler than their standard forms (either untouched or received only minor simplification in the postwar reforms), examples of which can be seen here [http://hac.cside.com/bunsho/1shou/39setu.html], but despite their wide usage and popularity, they, like their prewar counterparts, are not considered socially acceptable and are only used in handwriting. Many Chinese characters are not used in Japanese at all. Theoretically, however, any Chinese character can also be a Japanese character—the ''Daikanwa Jiten'', one of the largest dictionaries of kanji ever compiled, has about 50,000 entries, even though most of the entries have never been used in Japanese.

Readings
Because of the way they have been adopted into Japanese, a single kanji may be used to write one or more different words (or, in most cases, morphemes). From the point of view of the reader, kanji are said to have one or more different "readings". Deciding which reading is meant will depend on context, intended meaning, use in compounds, and even location in the sentence. Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings. These readings are normally categorized as either ''on'yomi'' (or ''on'') or ''kun'yomi'' (or ''kun'').

''On'yomi'' (Chinese reading)
The '''''on'yomi''''' (音読ã?¿), the Sino-Japanese reading, is a Japanese approximation of the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. Some kanji were multiply introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multiple ''on'yomi'', and often multiple meanings. ''Kanji'' invented in Japan would not normally be expected to have ''on'yomi'', but there are exceptions, such as the character åƒ? 'to work', which has the kun'yomi ''hataraku'' and the on'yomi ''dÅ?'', and è…º 'gland', which has only the on'yomi ''sen''. Generally, ''on'yomi'' are classified into four types: *'''Go-on''' (呉音; literally ''Wu sound'') readings, from the pronunciation of the Wu (region) Wu region (in the vicinity of modern Shanghai), during the 5th century 5th and 6th century 6th centuries. *'''Kan-on''' (漢音; literally ''Han sound'') readings, from the pronunciation during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century 7th to 9th century 9th centuries, primarily from the standard speech of the capital, Chang'an. *'''TÅ?-on''' (å”?音；literally ''Tang sound'') readings, from the pronunciations of later dynasties, such as the Song Dynasty Song and Ming Dynasty Ming, covers all readings adopted from the Heian era to the Edo period *'''Kan'yÅ?-on''' (慣用音) readings, which are mistaken readings of the kanji which have become accepted into the language. '''Examples''' {| class="wikitable" ! Kanji ! Meaning ! Go-on ! Kan-on ! TÅ?-on ! Kan'yÅ?-on |- ! 明 | light | ''myÅ?'' | ''mei'' | ''min'' | * |- ! è¡Œ | go | ''gyÅ?'' | ''kÅ?'' | ''an'' | * |- ! 極 | extremely | ''goku'' | ''kyoku'' | * | * |- ! ç?  | pearl | * | ''shu'' | * | ''ju'', ''zu'' |- ! 度 | level | ''do'' | ''taku'' | ''to'' | * |} The most common form of readings is the ''kan-on'' one. The ''go-on'' readings are especially common in Buddhist terminology such as ''gokuraku'' 極楽 "paradise". The ''tÅ?-on'' readings occur in some words such as ''isu'' "chair" or ''futon''. In Chinese, each character is associated with a single Chinese syllable. However, Tonal language tonality aside, most Chinese syllables (especially in Middle Chinese, in which final stop consonants were more prevalent than in most modern dialects) did not fit the largely-CV (consonant-vowel) phonotactics of classical Japanese. Thus most ''on'yomi'' are composed of two Mora_(linguistics) moras (syllables or beats), the second of which is either a lengthening of the vowel in the first mora (this being ''i'' in the case of ''e'' and ''u'' in the case of ''o'', due to drift linguistic drift in the centuries since), or one of the syllables ''ku'', ''ki'', ''tsu'', ''chi'', or syllabic ''n'', chosen for their approximation to the final consonants of Middle Chinese. In fact, YÅ?on palatalized consonants before vowels other than ''i'', as well as syllabic ''n'', were probably added to Japanese to better simulate Chinese; none of these features occur in words of native Japanese origin. ''On'yomi'' primarily occur in multi-kanji compound words (熟語 ''jukugo''), many of which are the result of the adoption (along with the kanji themselves) of Chinese words for concepts that either didn't exist in Japanese or could not be articulated as elegantly using native words. This borrowing process is often compared to the English borrowings from Latin and Norman French, since Chinese-borrowed terms are often more specialized, or considered to sound more erudite or formal, than their native counterparts. The major exception to this rule is surnames, in which the native ''kun'yomi'' reading is usually used (see below).

''Kun'yomi'' (Japanese reading)
The '''''kun'yomi''''' (訓読ã?¿), Japanese reading, or '''native reading''', is a reading based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or ''yamatokotoba'', that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. Again, there can be multiple ''kun'' readings for the same kanji, and some kanji have no ''kun'yomi'' at all. For instance, the kanji for east, æ?±, has the ''on'' reading ''tÅ?''. However, Japanese already had two words for "east": ''higashi'' and ''azuma''. Thus the kanji character æ?± had the latter pronunciations added as ''kun'yomi''. However, the kanji 寸, denoting a Chinese unit of measurement (slightly over an inch), had no native Japanese equivalent; thus it only has an ''on'yomi'', ''sun''. ''Kun'yomi'' are characterized by the strict (C)V syllable structure of ''yamatokotoba''. Most noun or adjective ''kun'yomi'' are two to three syllables long, while verb ''kun'yomi'' are more often one or two syllables in length (not counting trailing hiragana called ''okurigana'', although those are usually considered part of the reading). In a number of cases, multiple kanji were assigned to cover a single Japanese word. Typically when this occurs, the different kanji refer to specific shades of meaning. For instance, the word ã?ªã?Šã?™, ''naosu'', when written æ²»ã?™, means "to heal an illness or sickness". When written ç›´ã?™ it means "to fix or correct something" (e.g. a bicycle or a poorly written article). Sometimes the differences are very clear; other times they are quite subtle. Sometimes there are differences of opinion among reference works -- one dictionary may say the kanji are equivalent, while another dictionary may draw distinctions of use. Because of this confusion, Japanese people may have trouble knowing which kanji to use. One workaround is simply to write the word in hiragana, a method frequently employed with more complex cases such as ã‚‚ã?¨ ''moto'', which has at least five different kanji, å…ƒ, 基, 本, 下, ç´ , three of which have only very subtle differences.

Other readings
There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture of ''on'yomi'' and ''kun'yomi'', known as ''jÅ«bako'' (é‡?ç®±) or ''yutÅ?'' (湯桶) words. The words ''jÅ«bako'' and ''yutÅ?'' themselves are examples: the first character of ''jÅ«bako'' is read using ''on'yomi'', the second ''kun'yomi'', while it is the other way around with ''yutÅ?''. Other examples include 金色 ''kin'iro'' "golden" (''on-kun'') and å?ˆæ°—é?“ ''aikidÅ?'' "the martial art Aikido" (''kun-on-on''). Some kanji also have lesser-known readings called ''nanori'', which are mostly used for people's names (often given names), and are generally closely related to the ''kun'yomi''. Place names sometimes also use ''nanori'' (or, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere). '''''Gikun''''' (義訓) are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual ''on'yomi'' or ''kun'yomi'', but are instead connected by the meaning of the written and spoken phrases. For example, the compound 一寸 might naïvely be read ''issun'', meaning "one ''sun''", but it is more often used to write the indivisible word ''chotto'', "a little". ''Gikun'' also feature in some Japanese family names. Many ''ateji'' (kanji used only for their phonetic value) have meanings derived from their usage: for example, the now-archaic 亜細亜 ''ajia'' was formerly used to write "Asia" in kanji; the character 亜 now means ''Asia'' in such compounds as æ?±äºœ ''tÅ?a'', "East Asia". From the written 亜米利加 ''amerika'', the second character was taken, resulting in the semi-formal coinage 米国 ''beikoku'', lit. "rice country" but meaning "United States of America".

When to use which reading
Words for similar concepts, such as "east" (æ?±), "north" (北) and "northeast" (æ?±åŒ—), can have completely different pronunciations: the ''kun'' readings ''higashi'' and ''kita'' are used for the first two, while the ''on'' reading ''tÅ?hoku'' is used for the third. The rule of thumb for determining the pronunciation of a particular kanji in a given context is that kanji occurring in compounds are generally read using ''on'yomi''. Such compounds are called ''jukugo'' (熟語) in Japanese. For example, 情報 ''jÅ?hÅ?'' "information", 学校 ''gakkÅ?'' "school", and 新幹線 ''shinkansen'' "bullet train" all follow this pattern. Kanji occurring in isolation -- that is, written adjacent only to kana, not to other kanji -- are typically read using their ''kun'yomi''. Together with their okurigana, if any, they generally function either as a noun or as an inflected adjective or verb: e.g. 月 ''tsuki'' "moon", 情ã?‘ ''nasake'' "sympathy", 赤ã?„ ''akai'' "red" (adj), æ–°ã?—ã?„ ''atarashii'' "new ", 見る ''miru'' "(to) see". This rule of thumb has many exceptions. ''Kun'yomi'' are quite capable of forming compound words, although they are not as numerous as those with ''on'yomi''. Examples include 手紙 ''tegami'' "letter", 日傘 ''higasa'' "parasol", and the famous 神風 ''kamikaze'' "divine wind". Such compounds may also have okurigana, such as 空æ?šã?’ (also written å”?æ?šã?’) ''karaage'' "fried food" and 折り紙 ''origami'' "artistic paper folding", although many of these can also be written with the okurigana omitted (e.g. 空æ?š or 折紙). On the other hand, some ''on'yomi'' characters can also be used as words in isolation: æ„› ''ai'' "love", 禅 ''Zen'', 点 ''ten'' "mark, dot". Most of these cases involve kanji that have no ''kun'yomi'', so there can be no confusion. The situation with ''on'yomi'' is further complicated by the fact that many kanji have more than one ''on'yomi'': witness 先生 ''sensei'' "teacher" versus 一生 ''isshÅ?'' "one's whole life". There are also some words that can be read multiple ways, similar to English words such as "live" or "read" -- 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 -- ''jÅ?zu'' (skilled), ''uwate'' (upper part), or ''kamite'' (upper part). In addition, 上手ã?„ has the reading ''umai'' (skilled). Some famous place names, including those of Tokyo (æ?±äº¬ ''TÅ?kyÅ?'') and Japan itself (日本 ''Nihon'' or sometimes ''Nippon'') are read with ''on'yomi''; however, the majority of Japanese place names are read with ''kun'yomi'' (e.g. 大阪 ''ÅŒsaka'', é?’森 ''Aomori'', 箱根 ''Hakone''). Family names are also usually read with ''kun'yomi'' (e.g., 山田 ''Yamada'', 田中 ''Tanaka'', 鈴木 ''Suzuki''). Personal names, although they are not typically considered ''jÅ«bako''/''yutÅ?'', often contain mixtures of ''kun'yomi'', ''on'yomi'', and ''nanori'', and are generally only readable with some experience (e.g., 大助 ''Daisuke'' [''on-kun''], å¤?美 ''Natsumi'' [''kun-on'']).

Pronunciation assistance
Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out in ruby characters known as ''furigana'' (small ''kana'' written above or to the right of the character) or ''kumimoji'' (small ''kana'' written in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners and ''manga'' (comics). It is also used in newspapers for rare or unusual readings and for characters not included in the officially recognized set of essential kanji (see below).

Total number of kanji characters
The number of possible characters is disputed. The "Daikanwa Jiten" contains about 50,000 characters, and this was thought to be comprehensive, but more recent mainland Chinese dictionaries contain 80,000 or more characters, many consisting of obscure variants. Most of these are not in common use in either Japan or China.

Orthographic reform and lists of kanji
In 1946, following World War II, the Japanese government instituted a series of orthography orthographic reforms. Some characters were given simplified glyphs, called 新字体 (''shinjitai''). The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged. This was done with the goal of facilitating learning for children and simplifying kanji use in literature and periodicals. These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used.

KyÅ?iku kanji
:''Main article: KyÅ?iku kanji'' The KyÅ?iku kanji 教育漢字 ("education kanji") are 1006 characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school. The number was 881 until 1981. The grade-level breakdown of the education kanji is known as the '''Gakunen-betsu kanji haitÅ?hyÅ?''' 学年別漢字é…?当表), or the ''gakushÅ« kanji''.

JÅ?yÅ? kanji
:''Main article: JÅ?yÅ? kanji The JÅ?yÅ? kanji 常用漢字 are 1,945 characters consisting of all the kyÅ?iku kanji, plus an additional 939 kanji taught in junior high and high school. In publishing, characters outside this category are often given ''Ruby characters furigana''. The JÅ?yÅ? kanji were introduced in 1981. They replaced an older list of 1850 characters known as the '''General-use kanji''' (''toyo kanji tÅ?yÅ? kanji'' 当用漢字) introduced in 1946.

JinmeiyÅ? kanji
:''Main article: JinmeiyÅ? kanji'' The ''JinmeiyÅ? kanji'' 人å??用漢字 are 2,928 characters consisting of the JÅ?yÅ? kanji, plus an additional 983 kanji found in people's names. Over the years, the Minister of Justice has on several occasions added to this list. Sometimes the phrase ''JinmeiyÅ? kanji'' refers to all 2928, and sometimes it only refers to the 983 that are only used for names.

Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji
The Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji and kana define character code-points for each kanji and kana, as well as other forms of writing such as Hindu-Arabic numerals, for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:
- JIS X 0208:1997, the most recent version of the main standard. It has 6,355 kanji.
- JIS X 0212:1990, 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 0213:2000, a further revision which extended the JIS X 0208 set with 3,625 additional kanji, of which 2,741 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''''' (外字), literally meaning "external characters", are kanji that are not represented in existing Japanese language Japanese Character encoding 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 or system-specific characters. 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, and JIS X 0213-2000 used the range of code-points previously allocated to ''gaiji'', making them completely unusable. Nevertheless, they persist today with NTT DoCoMo's "iMode" service, where they are used for pictorial characters. Unicode allows for optional encoding of ''gaiji'' in '''Private Use Area private use areas'''.

Types of Kanji: by Category
:''Main article: Chinese character classification'' The Buddhist scholar Xu Shen, in the ''Shuowen Jiezi ShuÅ?wén JiÄ›zì'' (說文解字) ca. 100 CE, classified Chinese characters into six categories (Japanese: 六書 ''rikusho''). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and 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. (For a table of all the ''kyÅ?iku kanji'' (教育漢字) broken down by category see [http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/kanjitypes.html this page], from which the above description has been extracted.)

''ShÅ?kei-moji'' (象形文字)
These characters are sketches of the object they represent. For example, ç›® is an eye, 木 is a tree, etc. The current forms of the characters are very different from the original, and it is now hard to see the origin in many of these characters. It is somewhat easier to see in seal script. This kind of character is often called a "pictograph" in English (''ShÅ?kei'' -- 象形 is also the Japanese word for Egyptian hieroglyphs). These make up a small fraction of modern characters.

''Shiji-moji'' (指事文字)
''Shiji-moji'' are called "logograms", "simple ideographs", "simple indicatives", and sometimes just "symbols" in English. They are usually graphically simple and represent an abstract concept such as a direction: e.g. 上 representing "up" or "above" and 下 representing "down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

''Kaii-moji'' (会�文字)
Often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", "compound ideographs", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine to present an overall meaning. An example is the ''kokuji'' 峠 (mountain pass) made from 山 (mountain), 上 (up) and 下 (down). Another is 休 (rest) from 人 (person) and 木 (tree). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.

''Keisei-moji'' (形声文字)
These are called "phono-semantic", "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic" or "phonetic-ideographic" characters in English. They are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of characters. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which indicates the meaning or semantic context, and the other the pronunciation. (The pronunciation really relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japanese ''on'yomi'' of the kanji. 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. As examples of this, consider the kanji with the 言 shape: 語, 記, 訳, 説, etc. All are related to word/language/meaning. Similarly kanji with the 雨 (rain) shape (雲, 電, 雷, 雪, 霜, etc.) are almost invariably related to weather. Kanji with the 寺 (temple) shape on the right (詩, �, 時, �, etc.) usually have an ''on'yomi'' of "shi" or "ji". Sometimes one can guess the meaning and/or reading simply from the components. However, exceptions do exist -- for example, neither 需 nor 霊 have anything to do with weather (at least in their modern usage), and 待 has an ''on'yomi'' of "tai". That is, a component may play a semantic role in one compound, but a phonetic role in another.

''Tenchū-moji'' (転注文字)
This group have variously been called "derivative characters", or "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 ''on'yomi'', ''gaku'' 'music' and ''raku'' 'pleasure'.

''Kasha-moji'' (仮借文字)
These are called "phonetic loan characters." For example, æ?¥ 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.

Related symbols
The ideographic 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 色々 (''iroiro'' "various") and 時々 (''tokidoki'' "sometimes"). This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in the Japanese name surname Sasaki (�々木). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji �. Another frequently used symbol is ヶ (a small katakana "ke"), pronounced "ka" when used to indicate quantity (such as 六ヶ月, ''rok'''ka'''getsu'' "six months") or "ga" in place names like Kasumigaseki (霞ヶ関). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji 箇.

Radical-and-stroke sorting (Alphabetization)
{{main|Collation#Radical-and-stroke sorting}} Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by convention such as is used with the Roman Alphabet, uses radical-and-stroke sorting to order a list of Kanji words. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are called radical (Chinese character) radicals in Chinese and logographic systems derived from Chinese, such as Kanji. Characters are then grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation. For example, the Chinese character for "mother" (媽) is sorted as a thirteen-stroke character under the three-stroke primary radical (女).

Kanji Kentei
:''Main article: Kanji Kentei'' The Japanese government provides the ''Kanji kentei'' (日本漢字能力検定試験 ''Nihon kanji nÅ?ryoku kentei shiken''; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude") which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The highest level of the ''Kanji kentei'' tests about 6000 kanji.

See also
* Hanja * Han Tu * Hanzi (Chinese Character) * Four-character idiom * Shotai * Han unification * Learning kanji * List of kanji by concept * List of kanji by stroke count * Sino-Japanese

References
* DeFrancis, John (1990). ''The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824810686. * Hannas, William. C. (1997). ''Asia's Orthographic Dilemma''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 082481892X (paperback); ISBN 0824818423 (hardcover). * Kaiser, Stephen (1991). Introduction to the Japanese Writing System. In ''Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide''. Tokyo: Kondansha International. ISBN 4-7700-1553-4. * Mitamura, Joyce Yumi and 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''. ISBN 0195101669

External links

- Convert Kanji to Romaji and Hiragana
- Kanji Dictionary
- Dictionary of Kokuji in Japanese
- Change in Script Usage in Japanese: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Government White Papers on Labor, discussion paper by Takako Tomoda in the [http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ ''Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies''], 19 August 2005.
- Kanji to hiragana converter
- Jim Breen's WWWJDIC server used to find Kanji from English or romanized Japanese
- Zhongwen Chinese characters and culture
- Japanese Kanji Dictionary Each character is presented by a grade, stroke count, stroke order, phonetic reading and native Japanese reading. You can also listen to the pronunciation. Category:Kanji * Category:Japanese terms ar:كانجي ca:Kanji de:Kanji es:Kanji fi:Kanji fr:Kanji he:קנג'י id:Kanji is:Kanji ja:日本���る漢字 ko:간지 (한�) ms:Tulisan Kanji nl:Kanji pl:Kanji pt:Kanji ru:Кандзи sk:kandži sl:Kanji sr:Канђи sv:Kanji th:คันจิ tr:Kanji vi:Kanji zh:日文汉字

See also
* Wiktionary Category:Logographic writing systems Category:Japanese writing system Category:Graphemes de:Kategorie:Chinesische Schrift fr:Catégorie:Kanji ko:분류:한� nl:Categorie:Chinees schrift ja:Category:漢字 zh:Category:汉字

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