Kanji

Introduction to Kanji

   Kanji was introduced to Japan nearly 2,000 years ago. It is said that 50,000 kanji characters exist, though only about 5,000 to 10,000 are commonly used. After W.W.II, the Japanese government designated 1,945 basic characters as "Joyo Kanji (commonly used kanji)," which is used in textbooks and official writings. In Japan, one learns about the 1006 basic characters from "Joyo Kanji," in elementary school. A lot of time is spent at school learning kanji.

   It would be very helpful for you to learn all the Joyo Kanji, but the basic 1,000 characters are sufficient to read about 90% of the kanji used in a newspaper (about 60% with 500 characters). Since children's books use less kanji, they would be a good resource to practice your reading.

  

Japanese writing systems

   Each kanji character has at least two readings. One is the "on" (Chinese derived) reading, and the other is the "kun" (native Japanese) reading. For example: the word mountain in its "on" reading is "san," but the Japanese also use the native "kun" reading of  "yama". Kanji's main use is as the roots of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Numbers

1: Ichi               一 （いち）      one, unity

2: Ni                 二 （に）         two, second

3: San               三 （さん）      three, third

4: Shi/Yon         四 （し/よん） four

5: Go                五 （ご）         five, fifth
6: Roku             六 （ろく）       six, sixth
7: Shichi/Nana  七 （なな）      seven, seventh
8: Hachi            八 （はち）     eight, eighth, many
9: Kyuu/Ku        九 （きゅう）   nine
10: Juu             十 （じゅう）    ten, tenth, complete, cross

Positions

 

Chuuou       中央 （ちゅうおう）      center

Choujou      頂上 （ちょうじょう）     summit

Shitaji          下地 （したじ）           foundations