漢字入門 — Introduction to Kanji

Meet the Kanji: Characters with Meaning

You can now read both kana alphabets — amazing work! It's time to meet the third and final script: kanji (漢字), the characters Japan borrowed from China over 1,500 years ago. Unlike kana, which represent sounds, each kanji represents a meaning: 山 means "mountain", 水 means "water", 人 means "person".

Let's address the elephant in the room: yes, educated adults know around 2,000 kanji. No, you do not need anything like that now. The JLPT N5 expects about 100 kanji, and this chapter gives you your first ~30 — carefully chosen to be the most common and most useful characters in the language. More importantly, this chapter teaches you how kanji work, so every future kanji becomes easier to learn.

Why does Japanese even need kanji? Two big reasons. First, Japanese writing has no spaces — kanji make word boundaries visible, so わたしはにほんごをべんきょうします becomes the much clearer 私は日本語を勉強します. Second, Japanese has many homophones (words that sound identical); kanji tell them apart instantly. かみ could be 神 (god), 紙 (paper) or 髪 (hair) — the kanji removes all doubt!

1. One Kanji, Two Kinds of Readings

Here is the single most important fact about kanji in Japanese: most kanji have two types of readings (pronunciations), used in different situations.

Think of it like this: the English word "water" is Germanic, but in compound technical words we switch to Latin/Greek roots — "aquatic", "hydro-electric". Same idea! Alone: water (みず). In compounds: hydro (すい).

The rule of thumb (with exceptions, as always): kanji alone → kun'yomi; kanji in pairs/groups → on'yomi. Don't try to memorize every reading of every kanji in the abstract — learn readings through real words, and they stick naturally.

Okurigana and furigana: kanji's helpers

• Okurigana are the hiragana tails attached to a kanji to complete a word and show its grammar: 食べます (tabemasu, eat), 高い (takai, tall/expensive). The kanji carries the core meaning; the kana tail conjugates.
• Furigana are tiny hiragana printed above or beside a kanji to show its reading — you'll see them in children's books, manga, and textbooks. They are training wheels provided by Japan itself!

2. How Kanji Are Built: Radicals

Kanji are not random pictures — they are built from reusable parts called radicals (部首, bushu). Once you start seeing the parts, kanji stop being "a thousand strokes of chaos" and become LEGO:

• 日 (sun) + 月 (moon) = 明 — "bright" (sun and moon together!)
• 木 (tree) doubled = 林 — "woods"; tripled = 森 — "forest"
• 人 (person) squeezed to the left side (亻) + 木 = 休 — "rest" (a person leaning against a tree!)
• 口 (mouth/opening) appears inside dozens of kanji about speaking and eating

Many kanji even hint at their own pronunciation through a sound-component — you will notice this pattern more and more as your kanji count grows. For now, just practice seeing the parts: every time you meet a new kanji, ask "what pieces is this made of?"

3. Stroke Order: Same Rules, Bigger Characters

The three golden rules from hiragana still apply — top to bottom, left to right, horizontal before vertical — plus two kanji-specific ones:

1. Outside before inside … 口-type enclosures are drawn before what's inside them…
2. …but close the box last. The bottom stroke of an enclosure is drawn after the contents. (Fill the box, then seal it!)

Example: 日 is four strokes — left side, top+right in one bend, the middle bar, then the bottom bar seals it. Writing kanji by hand, even just a few times each, dramatically improves your ability to recognize them at a glance.

4. Your First 30 Kanji

Here they are — the highest-frequency characters in Japanese, grouped by theme. For each: meaning, main kun'yomi (in hiragana), main on'yomi (in katakana, the standard convention), and a real example word you can already read.

Numbers (Part 1: 1–5)

Numbers (Part 2: 6–10 and big numbers)

Memory hints: 一二三 are literally one, two, three strokes. 十 is a plus sign — ten fingers crossed! 円 looks like a bank vault door for your yen.

The Elements & Days of the Week

These seven kanji are a spectacular two-for-one deal: they name nature's elements and the days of the week (each day = element + 曜日 yōbi):

Picture power: 日 is a sun with a horizon line through it; 月 is a crescent moon with legs; 火 is a person waving flames; 木 is a tree with drooping branches; 川-like strokes in 水 are flowing streams.

Bonus: 日 + 本 = 日本 (Nihon) — Japan, "origin of the sun", the Land of the Rising Sun. And 日本 + 語 (language) = 日本語 (nihongo), the language you are learning!

People & Basic Concepts

More picture power: 人 is a person walking; 大 is a person stretching arms wide ("this big!"); 小 is something being squeezed small; 山 is three peaks; 川 is flowing water; 口 is an open mouth; 本 is a tree (木) with a line marking its root — the "origin", and books are the origin of knowledge!

5. How to Study Kanji (Without Losing Your Mind)

• Learn words, not isolated characters. "水 = water = みず in 水を飲みます, スイ in 水曜日" beats memorizing abstract reading lists.
• Use the stories. Silly mental images (Santa on the roof, a person leaning on a tree) are scientifically excellent memory glue.
• Write each new kanji 5–10 times while saying a word that uses it.
• Review in cycles: today's kanji again tomorrow, then in three days, then in a week. Spaced repetition is the secret weapon of every successful kanji learner.
• Read everything you can. Even recognizing 日 and 人 on real signs builds the habit that carries you to 2,000.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Kanji carry meaning; kana carry sound. Kanji mark word boundaries and distinguish homophones.
• Most kanji have a kun'yomi (native reading, used alone/with okurigana) and an on'yomi (Chinese-derived reading, used in compounds). Learn readings through real words.
• Okurigana = hiragana tails that conjugate a kanji word; furigana = small reading hints above kanji.
• Kanji are built from radicals — see the parts, and complexity collapses (person + tree = rest!).
• Stroke order: the kana rules plus "outside before inside, close the box last".
• You now know ~30 kanji: numbers 一 to 万 plus 円, the element/day kanji 日月火水木金土, and people/concept kanji 人大小上下中山川口本.
• N5 needs only ~100 kanji — you are already a third of the way there. Writing system complete: on to vocabulary!