CONTENTS

PREFACE by Tanya Sienko 5

INTRODUCTION 7

PART ONE: WRITING

1 New Primitives & Kanji Primitives 152 Major Primitive Elements 283 Miscellaneous Kanji 1444 Western Measurements 1605 Phonetic Characters 1626 Old & Alternate Forms 165

PART TWO: READING

7 Old Pure Groups 1778 New Pure Groups 2039 Semi-Pure Groups 236

10 Mixed Groups 26411 A Potpourri of Readings 29912 Kanji with Japanese Readings Only 34413 Readings of Old & Alternate Forms 355

14 Supplementary Kanji 359

INDEXES

INDEX 1 Number of Strokes 371INDEX 2 Keywords and Primitive Meanings 389INDEX 3 Readings 418INDEX 4 Primitive Elements 487

Layout of Frames for Part One 490Layout of Frames for Part Two 491

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 493

http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-1.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-2.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-3.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-4.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-5.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-6.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-7.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-8.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-9.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-10.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-11.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-12.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-13.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-14.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-ix1.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-ix2.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-ix3.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-ix4.pdfhttp://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/Rk3/rk3-layout.pdf

Preface

Tanya Sienko

WHEN I FIRST contacted Dr. Heisig with a proposal to add a third vol-ume to Remembering the Kanji, I somehow left the impression that itwas my rather esoteric needs as a scientist that left me hankering formore kanji than the 2,042 I had learned with his method. Actually, itwas not the technical prose of Yukawa and Tomonaga on eld theorythat were causing me my biggest headaches but ordinary Japanese nov-els. Having read mystery novels to polish my reading in other languages,I was disappointed to nd that the essential or general-use charac-ters were simply not enough to gain entry into the Japanese thriller.After just a few chapters, my maiden voyage ended on the rocks. Somuch for basic literacy, I thought to myself. And so was born the ideafor this book.

During the time of the American Occupation, the Japanese writingsystem underwent a complete overhaul, which saw the number ofChinese characters to be learned during the years of compulsory educa-tion reduced to a bare minimum of 1,850. The idea was to simplify thesystem and facilitate literacy by removing rarely used kanji from circula-tion. What the reformers did not count on in their long-range plan wasthe resistance of the general public to the disappearance of many kanjicustomarily used for names. Families reacted by continuing to nametheir children with traditional names, but the government refused toregister the kanji. This resulted in the bizarre situation where a numberof Japanese were growing up legally nameless. In 1951 the Ministry ofEducation grudgingly backed down and approved another 92 legalcharacters for names, followed by another 28 in 1976. In 1981 thenumber of general-use kanji was increased in 1,945 and in 1990 the

kanji approved for use in names was increased to 284. This is the situa-tion at present.

Of course, there were still numerous kanji outside the list that contin-ued to be used in place names, or that appeared in books publishedbefore the educational reforms and were impractical to update. Over thepast twenty years many of these exiled characters have migrated backinto daily use. Advertisers often prefer the compactness and precision ofolder kanji to their phonetic equivalents. Increasing competition hasinduced universities to include more and more unofcial kanji in theirentrance examinations. And popular novelists, as always, cling tenacious-ly to their cache of little-known glyphs as a mark of the trade. Finally,the ubiquitous word processor has turned the distinction between whatis allowed and what is disallowed into something of an anachro-nism.

For the foreign student who has landed in this mess, there have beenonly two alternatives: either you adhere to the ofcial list, or you stum-ble about blindly trying to improve your knowledge as best you can.The idea behind the present book was to offer a third choice: supple-mentary kanji to lay a solid basis for contemporary Japanese.

In addition to the method of selection explained in Dr. Heisigsintroduction, I myself checked the nal list against Edward Daub, et al.,Comprehending Technical Japanese (University of Wisconsin Press,1975), which used frequency lists to determine the 500 kanji most usedin technical writings. With the exception of characters specic to oneeld, this list is represented in the pages that follow.

Of the many people who assisted me in this project, I would like par-ticularly to thank Ronald D. Mabbitt for help in the cross-referencingand for his many useful suggestions on the structure of the book; andKanda Yumiko P,{ for checking some of the more obscure com-pounds.

6 PREFACE

Introduction

THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHER William James once wrote that a great ideagoes through three stages on its way to acceptance. First, it is dismissedas nonsense. Then it is acknowledged as true, but insignicant. Finally, itis seen to be important, but not really anything new. Time and againhistory conrms the wisdom of Jamess observation, but it also remindsus that the very same bias that resists the invasion of novelty also servesto swat away many a ea-brained idea buzzing about for attention.

In this connection, I must admit I am of two minds about Remem-bering the Kanji and its companion volumes. I have always had the sensethat there was something ea-brained about the whole project. Itsreception by students of the Japanese language across the world hasbeen as much a surprise to me as to the publishers, the Japan Publi-cations Trading Company. We had expected no more than a short buzz,followed by a rm whack into oblivion. From the start I was convincedthat if there was anything important in the method, it surely was noth-ing new. All I had done, after all, was to put some semblance of orderinto what students of the kanji had always done: trick their minds intomaking easily forgettable shapes more memorable. The sales of thebooks, as well as scores of letters from readers, has convinced me thatthis is in fact the case.

On the one hand, the method seems to have proved itself a naturalone suited to large number of students motivated to study the kanji ontheir own. On the other, it remains virtually useless for classroominstruction. This is hardly surprising, since it aims to do something theclassroom cannot do, namely to tap the imagination of the individual atthe individuals own learning pace. To the native speaker of Japanesetrained in the traditional school system and trying to teach the Japanesewriting system to those whose primary education was outside of thekanji curtain, it can only appear a distracting gimmick. For one whodoes not know from experience the question behind the method, theanswereven if it worksmakes no sense. Whatever the merits of

Remembering the Kanji as a learning tool, then, its demerits as a teach-ing tool are beyond redemption. This is probably for the best. To forcethe expectations of the textbook on the method would probably onlyend up frustrating everyoneteachers and students. The saving grace ofthe books is that they are simply too ea-brained to run the circuit ofcourse work.

Letters from readers have combined expressions of gratitude withmore good ideas for improvements than I could ever assimilate into sub-sequent editions. The misprints that had slipped in along the way,thanks again to alert readers, have been periodically corrected in laterprintings. For the rest I have let the books stand as they are, reckoningthat their unpolished edges encourage the very kind of participation thatmakes them work in the rst place.

The one most common request that has haunted me over the yearshas been for a supplementary volume that would pick up some of themore useful kanji outside the lists propagated as standard by JapansMinistry of Education. The request always seemed reasonable enough.When I myself had worked through the ofcial list of kanji, I was leftwith much the same feeling: learning to write the characters is so sim-plenow if there were some list that could guide me into learning moreof them. The only solution I could see was to learn new characters asthey showed up in reading. Unfortunately, I kept no records, and couldonly reply to readers that they, too, let their particular reading habitsguide their acquisition of new kanji. But I always knew it was not quitethe right answer to an important question.

Then, about a year and a half ago, Tanya Sienko, a theoretical physi-cist from the