The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji. Kenneth G. Henshall

the end-syllable(s) to be written in kana by using italicized lower case. Thus, for example, 決 (‘decide’ / ‘be decided’, entry 289), which can be transitive or intransitive, is given as ‘kimeru/kimaru’ to indicate that the end-syllables should be written in kana (okurigana) as 決める/決まる. There can be variation in okurigana usage (e.g. hikikomori ‘children staying at home’ can be written as 引き籠もり, 引き籠り, or 引籠り), though modern practice does tend towards an explicit model. Note that some characters have numerous readings and meanings, potentially causing space problems. Sometimes, such as with the character 下 (shita ‘below’, entry 7), readings can extend over several lines. (Also, for considerations of spacing within the frames it has been necessary sometimes to use abbreviated English forms, such as ‘assoc sense’ for ‘associated sense’, and for the same reason an informal semi-note style is employed sometimes in the main explanatory text of entries.)

      Beneath the readings, English meanings, and stroke count, we give three example compounds for each character, where possible trying to illustrate its range of meanings and readings. In these compounds the Sino-Japanese (on) elements (‘readings’) are indicated by upper case, and the native Japanese ones (kun) by lower case (it is not uncommon to have a mix of the two in one word, e.g. 茶の湯 CHAnoyu ‘tea ceremony’, hence the upper and lower case combination). Western loanwords also use upper case, e.g., パン屋 PANya “baker(y).” (PAN “bread” is from Portuguese.) An asterisk against a romanized form indicates that the way of reading the characters (or one of the characters) concerned is irregular, e.g. 部屋 heya* ‘room’, in which 部 BU (‘part, section’) has the irregular reading he. Changes in pronunciation such as consonantal change in non-initial position, e.g. k changing to g (as in 筒型 tsutsugata ‘cylindrical’ [cf. kata ‘mold’]) or h to b (as in 火曜日 kayōbi ‘Tuesday’ [cf. hi ‘day’]) are not treated as irregular, and on the whole are not specifically noted in the readings, as we assume that readers have at least a basic level of familiarity with the Japanese language.

      In this book, for Japanese we use a modified Hepburn system. The syllabic nasal (the element written ん or ンin kana) is represented in Sino-Japanese by the letter N or n followed by an apostrophe where necessary to avoid ambiguity. An example of this is 単位, which is romanized as TAN’I to show that it is the word (of three short syllables, たんいin kana) meaning ‘unit’ as opposed to the word tani ‘valley’ (two short syllables, たに in kana). The long vowel equivalents of o and u are indicated by a macron, as in tōri ‘road’.

      For modern Chinese we use Pinyin romanization, with the tone marks omitted for typographical simplicity (an exception is ‘Peking Palace’ [not ‘Beijing Palace’], as here the older spelling seems entrenched). For early stages of Chinese we have followed the system employed by Schuessler, though modified in some cases to make it more readily understood by readers without a linguistic background.

      THE KANJI

      THE 80 FIRST GRADE CHARACTERS

      1

      L5

      一

      ICHI, ITSU, hito-

      one

      1 stroke

      一月 ICHIGATSU January

      均一 KIN’ITSU uniformity

      一人 hitori* one person

      A simple single stroke to represent ‘one’. Unsurprisingly, a similar convention was employed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing and in Sumerian cuneiform. References: SS1984:27; QX2000:32.

      Mnemonic: ONE FINGER

      2

      L5

      右

      U, YŪ, migi

      right

      5 strokes

      右派 UHA rightist faction

      左右 SAYŪ control

      右手 migite right hand

      Originally represented by , a stylized sketch of a hand. Other early but more complex forms show a hand on the right-hand side of what is widely interpreted as a mouth or – in a minority view (Shirakawa) – a ritual vessel /口 22 . References: SS1984:36; BK1957:261-2; KJ1970:38; AS2007:581-2.

      Mnemonic: RIGHT HAND TO THE MOUTH

      3

      L5

      雨

      U, ame, ama-

      rain

      8 strokes

      雨季 UKI rainy season

      大雨 ōame heavy rain

      雨雲 amagumo rain cloud

      OBI . Based on a conceptual depiction of rain, falling from the sky which is represented by a top horizontal line, though this line is often missing in the OBI and bronze forms. The graph can also indicate weather elements. References: SS1984:38; QX2000:208.

      Mnemonic: RAIN FROM HEAVENLY CLOUDS

      4

      L5

      円

      EN, marui

      round, yen

      4 strokes

      円形 ENKEI circle

      円高 ENdaka strong yen

      百円 HYAKUEN hundred yen

      The modern simplified form of 圓, a relatively late graph (Shuowen) which consists of 囗 (regularized shape for ‘circle’) with 員 248 (‘official’, originally ‘cauldron’) as phonetic; included by Tōdō in word-family meaning ‘round; surround’. 円 may be based on a cursive form of 圓. References: YK1976:69; TA1965:63-4. We suggest taking the graph as resembling a bank teller’s window.

      Mnemonic: ROUND YEN COINS AT THE BANK TELLER’S WINDOW

      5

      L3

      王

      Ō

      king, ruler

      4 strokes

      王子 ŌJI prince

      女王 JOŌ queen

      王様 Ōsama king

      OBI shows this graph to be based on a battle-ax blade. Shirakawa feels the OBI and bronze equivalents show a ritual blade of a type used only by those of high status such as a ruler. Qiu notes that at the seal script stage the character 王 and another separate character meaning ‘jewel’ were written so similarly that they could easily be confused, so a dot was added later for clarity when writing ‘jewel’ (see 玉 15). References: SS1984:62-3; QX2000:46.

      Mnemonic: KING RULES WITH AN AX

      6

      L4

      音

      ON, IN, oto, ne

      sound

      9 strokes

      音楽 ONGAKU music

      子音 SHIIN consonant

      発音 HATSUON pronunciation

      Precise etymology disputed. Early bronze equivalent