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THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
Japanese
Kanji
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
Japanese
Kanji
REMEMBERING AND UNDERSTANDING
THE 2,136 STANDARD CHARACTERS
CHRISTOPHER SEELEY AND KENNETH G. HENSHALL
WITH JIAGENG FAN
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998, 2016 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
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 Control Number: 2015954332
ISBN 978-4-8053-1170-7; ISBN 978-1-4629-1773-0 (ebook)
First edition
20 19 18 17 16 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in Singapore 1601MP
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Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
• Beginnings of the Chinese Script
• Formational Principles of the Chinese Script
• Word-Families and the Chinese Script
• Fluctuation in the Script: Variant Forms
• Early and Pre-Modern Character Dictionaries
• Printed Texts and the Calligraphic Tradition
• Layout of Entries in This Book
• Sources Used and Terminology in This Book
• Limitations of This Book
The Japanese Writing System: A Brief Sketch
Hiragana and Katakana and Their Source Characters
The 214 Determinatives (or ‘Radicals’) System
General Principles of Stroke Order
Editorial and Typographical Matters; Romanization
The 80 First-Grade Characters
The 160 Second-Grade Characters
The 200 Third-Grade Characters
The 200 Fourth-Grade Characters
The 185 Fifth-Grade Characters
The 181 Sixth-Grade Characters
The Remaining 1130 Characters
Readings Index
Stroke-Count
Appendix
• Similarly-Shaped Elements Easily Confused
Bibliography
Preface to the Second Edition
This book is an extensive revision of the original edition of A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters compiled by Kenneth Henshall and published in 1988. The original 1988 edition represents a pioneering work in English on the etymologies of the official General Use characters (Jōyō kanji) in use at that time. Since then, much has changed: a very substantial amount of scholarly research has been published on character etymologies and related areas, mainly in Japanese and Chinese, but also some in English. Another change has been that in 2010 there appeared a revised, expanded version of the Jōyō kanji list, the official list of characters for general use; this increased the basic number of characters for use in school education and government publications from 1945 (in the list promulgated in 1981) to 2136. In response to these changes, this second edition has been prepared. While care has been taken in the preparation of this work, any errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.
Acknowledgments
Thanks
