kanji.
⑫ Writing Practice Grid
A grid is included here to facilitate the practice of writing each new character. I strongly encourage you to use this space for this purpose.
Use of Romanization
You will note that the Hebon style is used throughout the textbook for romanization. In this style, the hiragana ん is written as n or n’ and long vowel sounds appear with a macron, such as ō. While the use of rōmaji certainly makes language acquisition easier in the earlier stages of study, in the long term it can prove to be a hindrance. I encourage you to master the two Japanese syllabararies, hiragana and katakana, as quickly as possible.
Using This Book
Students of the language are often daunted by the study of kanji characters. However, once hiragana and katakana have been mastered, it is surprising how rapidly one can become absorbed in the challenges of learning kanji. A certain degree of patience and discipline is required in order to establish a regular routine of practicing, revising and thinking of innovative ways to memorize the characters.
Japanese Kanji Power has been devised to allow you to develop your own study habits. Once the 12 characters in a particular set have been covered, I recommend that you work through the quizzes, testing yourself and revising when you make mistakes. To assist you with your self-study, a series of Japanese Kanji Power cards and workbooks is planned to accompany this book. These will offer additional opportunities for reading and consolidation of the characters targeted herein.
In the meantime, I trust that this book will provide you with sufficient material to pursue your study of the Japanese language and to develop ‘Kanji Power’!
Rules for Writing Kanji
There are a number of fundamental rules that need to be observed when writing kanji.
1. Write from left to right.
2. Write from top to bottom.
3. Horizontal strokes are usually written before vertical strokes, even when the vertical line is curved.
4. Write the center stroke first, followed by the left and right strokes.
5. Write the outside strokes, except for the bottom one, before the center portion.
6. Write a left-hand sweeping stroke before a right-hand one.
7. A vertical stroke which pierces the center is written last.
8. A horizontal stroke which pierces the center is written last.
9. Write a short left sweeping stroke before a horizontal stroke.
10. Write a long left sweeping stroke after a horizontal stroke.
Please note that there are some exceptions to these rules. For example:
Learning to write a Chinese character with the correct stroke order, giving attention to the appropriate size and balance of the character, will assist you in memorization and when looking up the kanji in a kanji dictionary or index. Of course, knowing either the kun or on reading of the character is a great benefit as well. I encourage you to write kanji using the correct stroke order and to practice counting the number of strokes in any new character being studied.
Origin of Kanji
There are a number of classifications of Chinese characters that describe the way they were formed.
1. Kanji which derive from pictures, or pictographs. These characters were originally pictures of concrete objects which were simplified over time.
2. Kanji which derive from signs. These characters are made up of points and lines and are used to express abstract concepts, such as ‘above’, ‘below’ and ‘in’.
3. Kanji which are made up of a combination of meanings (ideographic characters). These characters are made by combining other simple characters to create a new meaning.
4. Kanji which are a combination of ideographic and phonetic elements. The majority of kanji fall into this category. The important characteristic of these kanji is that one component of the new character represents the meaning of the entire character (often the right-hand or upper part), while the other represents the pronunciation.
Examples
Kanji Radicals
Most kanji are made up of two or more elements and these elements can be combined in different ways. These common components are called radicals, or bushu in Japanese, and are useful in that they are used to classify kanji in dictionaries. Any given kanji will have one radical with a basic meaning. There are over 200 radicals and they are positioned within kanji in the following ways:
1. HEN (on the left) This category is the most common.
2. TSUKURI (one the right)
3. KANMURI / KASHIRA (on the top)
4. ASHI (at the bottom)
5. TARE (at the upper left)
6. NYŌ ( at the bottom left)
