Kanji / 漢字

A modern Japanese text is usually a mixture of three types of letters: hiragana, katakana, and kanji (Chinese characters). Because of this coexistence , it has a special function and visual effect.

Hiragana and katakana are phonetic characters. It means they only indicate sound, like Alphabet or Hangul.

On the other hand, Kanji is ideogram. In other words, each character has a meaning just like a small image or a symbol. So, when you have learn enough of them, you can read very fast by skimming–mainly picking kanji up.

To me, sometimes the Japanese text is likened to a cloth woven and embroidered with materials of different feels. Suppose hiragana is the base of the cloth, then katakana with angular shapes stands out like faceted beads sewn on it. Lastly, kanji among them has a thicker feel, since each has a meaning in it.

Sometimes it looks beautiful, and sometimes it looks awful. When we were small, my little sister and I didn’t like to open the book of family medicine; each page of the book were strewn with kanji which meant and therefore looked like bad insects and germs. By opening the book, we felt like those little creatures could come out!

Here are some interesting topics on kanji, and I will try to make it easy for you to read by adding furigana.

Why Does “Ruby” Mean “Furigana”? / なぜ振り仮名をルビという？

Why does “ruby” mean “furigana”? Contents What is furigana? What is “rubi”? How “ruby” came to Japan and became “rubi”…

Kanji / 漢字

A Story on the Chinese Character “蘇 (so)” / 「蘇」の字の話

This is a funny episode from the Edo Era of two scholars who were very knowledgeable about kanji.

Kanji / 漢字