♦ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ♦
I am indebted to Professors Takahashi Makoto, Uehara Akira, and Liu Kang-Shih for their assistance in preparing this manuscript, and to Boye De Mente and Frank Hudachek for their invaluable editorial suggestions. I also wish to thank the Asia House for the research grant that made this book possible.
Torrance, CA 2008
The Tuttle Story: “Books to Span the East and West”
Most people are surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its humble beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally books—especially old and rare editions.
Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry. He later founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers.
Though a westerner, Tuttle was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 books on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the “Order of the Sacred Treasure,” the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.
With a backlist of 1,500 titles, Tuttle Publishing is more active today than at any time in its past—inspired by Charles Tuttle’s core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2009 by Len Walsh
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walsh, Len.
Read Japanese today: the easy way to learn 400 practical kanji/by Len Walsh.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-4-8053-0981-0 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 4-8053-0981-4
1. Chinese characters—Japan. 2. Japanese language—Readers. 3. Japanese language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. I. Title.
PL537.W32 2009
495.6’82421—dc22
2008021664
ISBN 978-4-8053-0981-0
ISBN 978-1-4629-1592-7 (ebook)
Distributed by
| North America, Latin America & Europe Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A. Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993 [email protected]; www.tuttlepublishing.com Asia Pacific Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd. 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12 Singapore 534167 Tel: (65) 6280-1330; Fax: (65) 6280-6290 [email protected]; www.periplus.com | Japan Tuttle Publishing Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku Tokyo 141 0032 Tel: (81) 3 5437-0171; Fax: (81) 3 5437-0755 [email protected]; www.tuttle.co.jp |
First edition
16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1301MP
Printed in Singapore
TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Contents
What is Japanese writing?
How the characters were constructed
How Japan borrowed characters from China
Japanese pronunciation
How to write the kanji
How to use this book
Appendix A The Kana Syllabaries
Appendix B Kanji Summary Table
Appendix C Index to English Meanings
♦ INTRODUCTION ♦
What Is Japanese Writing?
The Japanese write their language with ideograms they borrowed from China nearly two thousand years ago. Some two thousand years before that, the ancient Chinese had formed these ideograms, sometimes called pictographs or characters, and known in Japanese as “kanji” 漢字 (literally translated as “Chinese letters”), from pictures of objects and actions they observed around them.
To the Chinese, the sun had looked like this