Kopiere et ord fra pdf-dokument
Steffen
er skrevet i pdf. Hvis jeg kopierer ordet og s�tter det ind i notepad, s�
kommer der blot et sp�rgsm�lsteg. Er der en klog person, der kan fort�lle
mig, hvad jeg kan g�re?
Steffen
Frank Damgaard
> Jeg har åbnet en webside, hvorfra jeg blot skal kopiere et enkelt ord.
> Siden er skrevet i pdf. Hvis jeg kopierer ordet og sætter det ind i
> notepad, så kommer der blot et spørgsmålsteg. Er der en klog person, der
> kan fortælle mig, hvad jeg kan gøre?
Måske tegnet er i en font din notepad ikke kan klare?
prøv evt. wordpad, openoffice writer mfl.
Det kan også være dikumentet er scannet dvs. det er ikke tekst
eller det kan være pdf dokumentet er beskyttet mod klippe-klistre.
Sidstnævnte kan normalt løses ved at åbne den i linux
med evince eller xpdf i stedet for adobe.
Steffen
Reader til at �bne det med, men jeg ved ikke, hvilket program det s� skulle
v�re.
Steffen
"Frank Damgaard" <frank...@milpent.dk> skrev i meddelelsen
news:4ad991d1$0$283$1472...@news.sunsite.dk...
M�ske tegnet er i en font din notepad ikke kan klare?
pr�v evt. wordpad, openoffice writer mfl.
Det kan ogs� v�re dikumentet er scannet dvs. det er ikke tekst
eller det kan v�re pdf dokumentet er beskyttet mod klippe-klistre.
Sidstn�vnte kan normalt l�ses ved at �bne den i linux
Frank Damgaard
> Det er helt sikkert tekst. Måske skal jeg bruge et andet program end
> Adobe Reader til at åbne det med, men jeg ved ikke, hvilket program det
> så skulle være.
> Steffen
Foxit PDF reader kan nok heller ikke, men du kan jo prøve.
Der findes noget der bygger på ghostscript (gsview)
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
men om den er bedre skal jeg ikke kunne sige.
noget andet du kunne prøve var
http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html
Men uden at have den aktuelle PDF er det jo svært at analysere
hvad præcist der er årsagen.
--
Outlook Express og Vista Mail brugere: Anvend OE Quotefix
så disse programmer kan citere korrekt:
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
Thomas Overgaard
Steffen wrote :
> Er der en klog person, der kan fort�lle mig, hvad jeg kan g�re?
Kan du ikke finde siden via Google og s� bruge dens "Vis som HTML"
funktion?
--
Thomas O.
This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.
Steffen
Steffen
"Frank Damgaard" <frank...@milpent.dk> skrev i meddelelsen
news:4ad9abbe$0$291$1472...@news.sunsite.dk...
Foxit PDF reader kan nok heller ikke, men du kan jo pr�ve.
Der findes noget der bygger p� ghostscript (gsview)
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
men om den er bedre skal jeg ikke kunne sige.
noget andet du kunne pr�ve var
http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html
Men uden at have den aktuelle PDF er det jo sv�rt at analysere
hvad pr�cist der er �rsagen.
Steffen
g�re. Jeg ved ikke hvorfor.
Siden er her:
http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK%201_sample.pdf
"Thomas Overgaard" <tho...@post2.tele.dk> skrev i meddelelsen
news:o4toq6-...@news.inet.tele.dk...
Åge Halldorsson
"Steffen" <box3...@yahoo.dk> skrev i meddelelsen
news:4ad96b8d$0$36565$edfa...@dtext01.news.tele.dk...
Det tror jeg ikke kan lade sig g�re. Min erfaring er, at det ikke er muligt
at kopiere ord eller s�tninger fra pdf-filer.
Hilsen �ge
PostMan
> Jeg har åbnet en webside, hvorfra jeg blot skal kopiere et enkelt ord. Siden
Hejsa..
det kan gøre ved at download pdf'en også sende den til en gmail konto
(hvis man har en sådan) den kan vise det som html. Dog en stor
operation
for at få fat i et enklet ord.
Vh
PostMan
Nedenfor her er hele dokumentet
--------------------------------------------------------
Page 1
Remembering the Kanjivol.1A Complete Course on How Not to Forgetthe
Meaning and Writingof Japanese CharactersJames W.HeisigfIfth
edItIonUniversity of Hawai‘i Presshonolulu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 2
ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Note to the 4th
Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 8part one: Stories (Lessons 1–12) . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13part two: Plots (Lessons 13–19)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115part three:
Elements (Lessons 20–56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
177Indexesi. Kanji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409ii. Primitive
Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 427iii. Kanji in Stroke Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431iv. Key Words and
Primitive Meanings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442v
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 3
IntroductionThe aim of this book is to provide the student of Japanese
with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of
Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to
remember. It is intended not only for the beginner, but also for the
more advanced student looking for some relief to the constant
frustration of forgetting how to write the kanji and some way to
systematize what he or she already knows. By showing how to break down
the complexities of the Japanese writing system into its basic elements
and suggesting ways to reconstruct meanings from those elements, the
method offers a new perspective from which to learn the kanji.There
are, of course, many things that the pages of this book will not do for
you. You will read nothing about how kanji combine to form compounds.
Nor is anything said about the various ways to pronounce the
characters. Furthermore, all questions of grammatical usage have been
omitted. These are all matters that need specialized treatment in their
own right. Meantime, remembering the meaning and the writing of the
kanji—perhaps the single most difficult barrier to learning
Japanese—can be greatly simplified if the two are isolated and studied
apart from everything else.What makes forgetting the kanji so natural
is their lack of connection with normal patterns of visual memory. We
are used to hills and roads, to the faces of people and the skylines of
cities, to flowers, animals, and the phenomena of nature. And while
only a fraction of what we see is readily recalled, we are confident
that, given proper attention, anything we choose to remember, we can.
That confidence is lacking in the world of the kanji. The closest
approxi-mation to the kind of memory patterns required by the kanji is
to be seen in the various alphabets and number-systems we know. The
difference is that while these symbols are very few and often
sound-related, the kanji number in the thousands and have no consistent
phonetic value. Nonetheless, traditional methods for learning the
characters have been the same as those for learning alphabets: drill
the shapes one by one, again and again, year after year. What-ever
ascetic value there is in such an exercise, the more efficient way
would be to relate the characters to something other than their sounds
in the first place, and so to break ties with the visual memory we rely
on for learning our alphabets.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 4
2 | introductionThe origins of the Japanese writing system can be
traced back to ancient China and the eighteenth century before the
Christian era. In the form in which we find Chinese writing codified
some 1,000 years later, it was made up largely of pictographic,
detailed glyphs. These were further transformed and stylized down
through the centuries, so that by the time the Japanese were introduced
to the kanji by Buddhist monks from Korea and started experi-menting
with ways to adapt the Chinese writing system to their own language
(about the fourth to seventh centuries of our era), they were already
dealing with far more ideographic and abstract forms. The Japanese made
their own contributions and changes in time, as was to be expected. And
like every modern Oriental culture that uses the kanji, they continue
to do so, though now more in matters of usage than form.So fascinating
is this story that many have encouraged the study of ety-mology as a
way to remember the kanji. Unfortunately, the student quickly learns
the many disadvantages of such an approach. As charming as it is to see
the ancient drawing of a woman etched behind its respective kanji, or
to dis-cover the rudimentary form of a hand or a tree or a house, when
the character itself is removed, the clear visual memory of the
familiar object is precious little help for recalling how to write it.
Proper etymological studies are most helpful after one has learned the
general-use kanji. Before that, they only add to one’s memory problems.
We need a still more radical departure from visual memory.Let me paint
the impasse in another, more graphic, way. Picture yourself holding a
kaleidoscope up to the light as still as possible, trying to fix in
mem-ory the particular pattern that the play of light and mirrors and
colored stones has created. Chances are you have such an untrained
memory for such things that it will take some time; but let us suppose
that you succeed after ten or fifteen minutes. You close your eyes,
trace the pattern in your head, and then check your image against the
original pattern until you are sure you have it remembered. Then
someone passes by and jars your elbow. The pattern is lost, and in its
place a new jumble appears. Immediately your memory begins to scramble.
You set the kaleidoscope aside, sit down, and try to draw what you had
just memorized, but to no avail. There is simply nothing left in memory
to grab hold of. The kanji are like that. One can sit at one’s desk and
drill a half dozen characters for an hour or two, only to discover on
the morrow that when something similar is seen, the former memory is
erased or hopelessly confused by the new information.Now the odd thing
is not that this occurs, but rather that, instead of openly admitting
one’s distrust of purely visual memory, one accuses oneself of a poor
memory or lack of discipline and keeps on following the same routine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 5
introduction| 3Thus, by placing the blame on a poor visual memory, one
overlooks the possi-bility of another form of memory that could handle
the task with relative ease: imaginative memory.By imaginative memory I
mean the faculty to recall images created purely in the mind, with no
actual or remembered visual stimuli behind them. When we recall our
dreams we are using imaginative memory. The fact that we sometimes
conflate what happened in waking life with what merely occurred in a
dream is an indication of how powerful those imaginative stimuli can
be. While dreams may be broken up into familiar component parts, the
com-posite whole is fantastical and yet capable of exerting the same
force on per-ceptual memory as an external stimulus. It is possible to
use imagination in this way also in a waking state and harness its
powers for assisting a visual memory admittedly ill-adapted for
remembering the kanji.In other words, if we could discover a limited
number of basic elements in the characters and make a sort of alphabet
out of them, assigning to each its own image, fusing them together to
form other images, and so building up complex tableaux in imagination,
the impasse created by purely visual memory might be overcome. Such an
imaginative alphabet would be every bit as rigorous as a phonetic one
in restricting each basic element to one basic value; but its grammar
would lack many of the controls of ordinary language and logic. It
would be like a kind of dream-world where anything at all might happen,
and happen differently in each mind. Visual memory would be used
minimally, to build up the alphabet. After that, one would be set loose
to roam freely inside the magic lantern of imaginative patterns
according to one’s own preferences.In fact, most students of the
Japanese writing system do something similar from time to time,
devising their own mnemonic aids but never developing an organized
approach to their use. At the same time, most of them would be
embarrassed at the academic silliness of their own secret devices,
feeling somehow that there is no way to refine the ridiculous ways
their mind works. Yet if it does work, then some such irreverence for
scholarship and tradition seems very much in place. Indeed, shifting
attention from why one forgets cer-tain kanji to why one remembers
others should offer motivation enough to undertake a more thorough
attempt to systematize imaginative memory.The basic alphabet of the
imaginative world hidden in the kanji we may call, following
traditional terminology, primitive elements (or simply primi-tives).
These are not to be confused with the so-called “radicals” which form
the basis of etymological studies of sound and meaning, and now are
used for the lexical ordering of the characters. In fact, most of the
radicals are them-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 6
4 | introductionselves primitives, but the number of primitives is not
restricted to the tradi-tional list of radicals.The primitives, then,
are the fundamental strokes and combinations of strokes from which all
the characters are built up. Calligraphically speaking, there are only
nine possible kinds of strokes in theory, seventeen in practice. A few
of these will be given primitive meanings; that is, they will serve as
fun-damental images. Simple combinations will yield new primitive
meanings in turn, and so on as complex characters are built up. If
these primitives are presented in orderly fashion, the taxonomy of the
most complex characters is greatly simplified and no attempt need be
made to memorize the primitive alphabet apart from actually using
it.The number of primitives, as we are understanding the term, is a
moot question. Traditional etymology counts some 224 of them. We shall
draw upon these freely, and also ground our primitive meanings in
traditional etymological meanings, without making any particular note
of the fact as we proceed. We shall also be departing from etymology to
avoid the confu-sion caused by the great number of similar meanings for
differently shaped primitives. Wherever possible, then, the generic
meaning of the primitives will be preserved, although there are cases
in which we shall have to specify that meaning in a different way, or
ignore it altogether, so as to root imag-inative memory in familiar
visual memories. Should the student later turn to etymological studies,
the procedure we have followed will become more transparent, and should
not cause any obstacles to the learning of etymolo-gies. The list of
elements that we have singled out as primitives proper (Index ii) is
restricted to the following four classes: basic elements that are not
kanji, kanji that appear as basic elements in other kanji with great
frequency, kanji that change their meaning when they function as parts
of other kanji, and kanji that change their shape when forming parts of
other kanji. Any kanji that keeps both its form and its meaning and
appears as part of another kanji functions as a primitive, whether or
not it occurs with enough frequency to draw attention to it as such.The
2,042 characters chosen for study in these pages (given in the order of
presentation in Index i and arranged according to the number of strokes
in Index iii) include the basic 1,850 general-use kanji established as
standard by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1946,1roughly another
60 used chiefly in proper names, and a handful of characters that are
convenient for use as primitive elements. Each kanji is assigned a key
word that represents its basic 1In 1981 an additional 95 characters
were added to this list. They have been incorporated into the later
editions of this book.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 7
introduction| 5meaning, or one of its basic meanings. The key words
have been selected on the basis of how a given kanji is used in
compounds and on the meaning it has on its own. There is no repetition
of key words, although many are nearly syn-onymous. In these cases, it
is important to focus on the particular flavor that that word enjoys in
English, so as to evoke connotations distinct from similar key words.
To be sure, many of the characters carry a side range of conno-tations
not present in their English equivalents, and vice versa; many even
carry several ideas not able to be captured in a single English word.
By sim-plifying the meanings through the use of key words, however, one
becomes familiar with a kanji and at least one of its principal
meanings. The others can be added later with relative ease, in much the
same way as one enriches one’s understanding of one’s native tongue by
learning the full range of feelings and meanings embraced by words
already known.Once we have the primitive meanings and the key word
relevant to a par-ticular kanji (cataloged in Index iv), the task is to
create a composite ideo-gram. Here is where fantasy and memory come
into play. The aim is to shock the mind’s eye, to disgust it, to
enchant it, to tease it, or to entertain it in any way possible so as
to brand it with an image intimately associated with the key word. That
image, in turn, inasmuch as it is composed of primitive meanings, will
dictate precisely how the kanji is to be penned—stroke for stroke, jot
for jot. Many characters, perhaps the majority of them, can be so
remembered on a first encounter, provided sufficient time is taken to
fix the image. Oth-ers will need to be reviewed by focusing on the
association of key-word and primitive elements. In this way, mere drill
of visual memory is all but entirely eliminated.Since the goal is not
simply to remember a certain number of kanji, but also to learn how to
remember them (and others not included in this book), the course has
been divided into three parts. Part one provides the full asso-ciative
story for each character. By directing the reader’s attention, at least
for the length of time it takes to read the explanation and relate it
to the written form of the kanji, most of the work is done for the
student, even as a feeling for the method is acquired. In Part two,
only the skeletal plots of the stories are presented, and the
individual must work out his or her own details by draw-ing on personal
memory and fantasy. Part three, which comprises the major portion of
the course, provides only the key word and the primitive meanings,
leaving the remainder of the process to the student.It will soon become
apparent that the most critical factor is the order of learning the
kanji. The actual method is simplicity itself. Once more basic
characters have been learned, their use as primitive elements for other
kanji can save a great deal of effort and enable one to review known
characters at
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 8
6 | introductionthe same time as one is learning new ones. Hence to
approach this course hap-hazardly, jumping ahead to the later lessons
before studying the earlier ones, will entail a considerable loss of
efficiency. If one’s goal is to learn to write the entire list of
general-use characters, then it seems best to learn them in the order
best suited to memory, not in order of frequency or according to the
order in which they are taught to Japanese children. Should the
individual decide to pursue some other course, however, the indexes
should provide all the basic information for finding the appropriate
frame and the primitives referred to in that frame.It may surprise the
reader casually leafing through these pages not to find a single
drawing or pictographic representation. This is fully consistent with
what was said earlier about placing the stress on imaginative memory.
For one thing, pictographs are an unreliable way to remember all but
very few kanji; and even in these cases, the pictograph should be
discovered by the student by toying with the forms, pen in hand, rather
than given in one of its histori-cal graphic forms. For another, the
presentation of an image actually inhibits imagination and restricts it
to the biases of the artist. This is as true for the illustrations in a
child’s collection of fairy tales as it is for the various phenom-ena
we shall encounter in the course of this book. The more original work
the individual does with an image, the easier will it be to remember a
kanji.Before setting out on the course plotted in the following pages,
attention should be drawn to a few final points. In the first place,
one must be warned about setting out too quickly. It should not be
assumed that because the first characters are so elementary, they can
be skipped over hastily. The method presented here needs to be learned
step by step, lest one find oneself forced later to retreat to the
first stages and start over; 20 or 25 characters per day would not be
excessive for someone who has only a couple of hours to give to study.
If one were to study them full-time, there is no reason why the entire
course could not be completed successfully in four to six weeks. By the
time Part one has been traversed, the student should have discovered a
rate of progress suitable to the time available.Second, the repeated
advice given to study the characters with pad and pencil should be
taken seriously. While simply remembering the characters does not, one
will discover, demand that they be written, there is really no better
way to improve the aesthetic appearance of one’s writing and acquire a
“natural feel” for the flow of the kanji than by writing them. The
method will spare one the toil of writing the same character over and
over in order to learn it, but it will not supply the fluency at
writing that comes only with constant practice. If pen and paper are
inconvenient, one can always make do with the palm of the hand, as the
Japanese do. It provides a convenient square space for
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 9
introduction| 7jotting on with one’s index finger when riding in a bus
or walking down the street.Third, the kanji are best reviewed by
beginning with the key word, pro-gressing to the respective story, and
then writing the character itself. Once one has been able to perform
these steps, reversing the order follows as a mat-ter of course. More
will be said about this later in the book.In the fourth place, it is
important to note that the best order for learning the kanji is by no
means the best order for remembering them. They need to be recalled
when and where they are met, not in the sequence in which they are
presented here. For that purpose, recommendations are given in Lesson 5
for designing flash cards for random review.Finally, it seems
worthwhile to give some brief thought to any ambitions one might have
about “mastering” the Japanese writing system. The idea arises from, or
at least is supported by, a certain bias about learning that comes from
overexposure to schooling: the notion that language is a cluster of
skills that can be rationally divided, systematically learned, and
certified by testing. The kanji, together with the wider structure of
Japanese—and indeed of any lan-guage for that matter—resolutely refuse
to be mastered in this fashion. The rational order brought to the kanji
in this book is only intended as an aid to get you close enough to the
characters to befriend them, let them surprise you, inspire you,
enlighten you, resist you, and seduce you. But they cannot be mastered
without a full understanding of their long and complex history and an
insight into the secret of their unpredictable vitality—all of which is
far too much for a single mind to bring to the tip of a single pen.That
having been said, the goal of this book is still to attain native
profi-ciency in writing the Japanese characters and associating their
meanings with their forms. If the logical systematization and the
playful irreverence con-tained in the pages that follow can help spare
even a few of those who pick the book up the grave error of deciding to
pursue their study of the Japanese language without aspiring to such
proficiency, the efforts that went into it will have more than received
their reward.Kamakura,Japan10 February 1977
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 10
Note to the 4th EditionIn preparing a new layout and typesetting of
this fourth edition, I was tempted to rethink many of the key words and
primitive meanings, and to adjust the stories accordingly. After
careful consideration and review of the hundreds of letters I have
received from students all over the world, as well as the changes that
were introduced in the French and Spanish versions of the book,2I have
decided to let it stand as it is with only a few exceptions.There are,
however, two related questions that come up with enough fre-quency to
merit further comment at the outset: the use of this book in
con-nection with formal courses of Japanese and the matter of
pronunciation or “readings” of the kanji.The reader will not have to
finish more than a few lessons to realize that this book was designed
for self-learning. What may not be so apparent is that using it to
supplement the study of kanji in the classroom or to review for
exam-inations has an adverse influence on the learning process. The
more you try to combine the study of the written kanji through the
method outlined in these pages with traditional study of the kanji, the
less good this book will do you. I know of no exceptions.Virtually all
teachers of Japanese, native and foreign, would agree with me that
learning to write the kanji with native proficiency is the greatest
single obstacle to the foreign adult approaching Japanese—indeed so
great as to be presumed insurmountable. After all, if even
well-educated Japanese study the characters formally for nine years,
use them daily, and yet frequently have trouble remembering how to
reproduce them, much more than English-speak-ing people have with the
infamous spelling of their mother tongue, is it not unrealistic to
expect that even with the best of intentions and study methods 2The
French adaptation was prepared by Yves Maniette under the title Les
kanji dans la tête: Apprendre à ne pas oublier le sens et l’écriture
des caractères japonais (Gramagraf sccl, 1998). The Spanish version,
prepared in collaboration with Marc Bernabé and Verònica Calafell, is
Kanji para recordar: Curso mnemotécnico para el aprendizaje de la
escritura y el significado de los caracteres japoneses (Barcelona:
Editorial Herder, 2001). After the issuance of this new edition, a
German version was published in collaboration with Robert Rauther, Die
Kanji lernen und behalten 1: Bedeutung und Schreibweise der japanischen
Schriftzeichen (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2005, 2006).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 11
note to the 4th edition| 9those not raised with the kanji from their
youth should manage the feat? Such an attitude may never actually be
spoken openly by a teacher standing before a class, but as long as the
teacher believes it, it readily becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This attitude is then transmitted to the student by placing greater
emphasis on the supposedly simpler and more reasonable skills of
learning to speak and read the language. In fact, as this book seeks to
demonstrate, noth-ing could be further from the truth.To begin with,
the writing of the kanji is the most completely rational part of the
language. Over the centuries, the writing of the kanji has been
sim-plified many times, always with rational principles in mind. Aside
from the Korean hangul, there may be no writing system in the world as
logically struc-tured as the Sino-Japanese characters are. The problem
is that the usefulness of this inner logic has not found its way into
learning the kanji. On the con-trary, it has been systematically
ignored. Those who have passed through the Japanese school system tend
to draw on their own experience when they teach others how to write.
Having begun as small children in whom the powers of abstraction are
relatively undeveloped and for whom constant repetition is the only
workable method, they are not likely ever to have considered
reor-ganizing their pedagogy to take advantage of the older student’s
facility with generalized principles.So great is this neglect that I
would have to say that I have never met a Japanese teacher who can
claim to have taught a foreign adult to write the basic general-use
kanji that all high-school graduates in Japan know. Never. Nor have I
ever met a foreign adult who would claim to have learned to write at
this level from a native Japanese teacher. I see no reason to assume
that the Japanese are better suited to teach writing because it is,
after all, their lan-guage. Given the rational nature of the kanji,
precisely the opposite is the case: the Japanese teacher is an
impediment to learning to associate the meanings of the kanji with
their written form. The obvious victim of the conventional methods is
the student, but on a subtler level the reconfirmation of unques-tioned
biases also victimizes the Japanese teachers themselves, the most
devoted of whom are prematurely denied the dream of fully
international-izing their language.There are additional problems with
using this book in connection with classroom study. For one thing, as
explained earlier in the Introduction, the efficiency of the study of
the kanji is directly related to the order in which they are learned.
Formal courses introduce kanji according to different principles that
have nothing to do with the writing. More often than not, the order in
which Japan’s Ministry of Education has determined children should
learn the kanji from primary through middle school, is the main guide.
Obvi-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 12
10 | note to the 4th editionously, learning the writing is far more
important than being certified to have passed some course or other. And
just as obviously, one needs to know all the general-use kanji for them
to be of any use for the literate adult. When it comes to reading basic
materials, such as newspapers, it is little consolation to know half or
even three-quarters of them. The crucial question for pedagogy,
therefore, is not what is the best way to qualify at some intermediate
level of proficiency, but simply how to learn all the kanji in the most
efficient and reli-able manner possible. For this, the traditional
“levels” of kanji proficiency are simply irrelevant. The answer, I am
convinced, lies in self-study, following an order based on learning all
the kanji.I do not myself know of any teacher of Japanese who has
attempted to use this book in a classroom setting. My suspicion is that
they would soon aban-don the idea. The book is based on the idea that
the writing of the kanji can be learned on its own and independently of
any other aspect of the language. It is also based on the idea that the
pace of study is different from one individual to another, and for each
individual, from one week to the next. Organizing study to the routines
of group instruction runs counter to those ideas.This brings us to our
second question. The reasons for isolating the writing of the kanji
from their pronunciation follow more or less as a matter of course from
what has been said. The reading and writing of the characters are
taught simultaneously on the grounds that one is useless without the
other. This only begs the basic question of why they could not better,
and more quickly, be taught one after the other, concentrating on what
is for the foreigner the sim-pler task, writing, and later turning to
the more complicated, the reading.One has only to look at the progress
of non-Japanese raised with kanji to see the logic of the approach.
When Chinese adult students come to the study of Japanese, they already
know what the kanji mean and how to write them. They have only to learn
how to read them. The progress they make in com-parison with their
Western counterparts is usually attributed to their being “Oriental.”
In fact, Chinese grammar and pronunciation have about as much to do
with Japanese as English does. It is their knowledge of the meaning and
writing of the kanji that gives the Chinese the decisive edge. My idea
was sim-ply to learn from this common experience and give the kanji an
English read-ing. Having learned to write the kanji in this way—which,
I repeat, is the most logical and rational part of the study of
Japanese—one is in a much better position to concentrate on the often
irrational and unprincipled problem of learning to pronounce them.In a
word, it is hard to imagine a less efficient way of learning the
reading and writing of the kanji than to study them simultaneously. And
yet this is the
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note to the 4th edition| 11method that all Japanese textbooks and
courses follow. The bias is too deeply ingrained to be rooted out by
anything but experience to the contrary.Many of these ideas and
impressions, let it be said, only developed after I had myself learned
the kanji and published the first edition of this book. At the time I
was convinced that proficiency in writing the kanji could be attained
in four to six weeks if one were to make a full-time job of it. Of
course, the claim raised more eyebrows than hopes among teachers with
far more experience than I had. Still, my own experience with studying
the kanji and the relatively small number of individuals I have
directed in the methods of this book, bears that estimate out, and I do
not hesitate to repeat it here.A word about how the book came to be
written. I began my study of the kanji one month after coming to Japan
with absolutely no previous knowledge of the language. Because travels
through Asia had delayed my arrival by sev-eral weeks, I took up
residence at a language school in Kamakura and began studying on my own
without enrolling in the course already in progress. A certain
impatience with my own ignorance compared to everyone around me,
coupled with the freedom to devote myself exclusively to language
stud-ies, helped me during those first four weeks to make my way
through a basic introductory grammar. This provided a general idea of
how the language was constructed but, of course, almost no facility in
using any of it.Through conversations with the teachers and other
students, I quickly picked up the impression that I had best begin
learning the kanji as soon as possible, since this was sure to be the
greatest chore of all. Having no idea at all how the kanji “worked” in
the language, yet having found my own pace, I decided—against the
advice of nearly everyone around me—to continue to study on my own
rather than join one of the beginners’ classes.The first few days I
spent pouring over whatever I could find on the history and etymology
of the Japanese characters, and examining the wide variety of systems
on the market for studying them. It was during those days that the
basic idea underlying the method of this book came to me. The following
weeks I devoted myself day and night to experimenting with the idea,
which worked well enough to encourage me to carry on with it. Before
the month was out I had learned the meaning and writing of some 1,900
characters and had satisfied myself that I would retain what I had
memorized. It was not long before I became aware that something
extraordinary had taken place.For myself, the method I was following
seemed so simple, even childish, that it was almost an embarrassment to
talk about it. And it had happened as such a matter of course that I
was quite unprepared for the reaction it caused. On the one hand, some
at the school accused me of having a short-term photographic memory
that would fade with time. On the other hand,
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12 | note to the 4th editionthere were those who pressed me to write up
my “methods” for their benefit. But it seemed to me that there was too
much left to learn of the language for me to get distracted by either
side. Within a week, however, I was persuaded at least to let my notes
circulate. Since most everything was either in my head or jotted
illegibly in notebooks and on flash cards, I decided to give an hour
each day to writing everything up systematically. One hour soon became
two, then three, and in no time at all I had laid everything else aside
to complete the task. By the end of that third month I brought a
camera-ready copy to Nan-zan University in Nagoya for printing. During
the two months it took to pre-pare it for printing I added an
Introduction. Through the kind help of Mrs. Iwamoto Keiko of Tuttle
Publishing Company, most of the 500 copies were distributed in Tokyo
bookstores, where they sold out within a few months. After the month I
spent studying how to write the kanji, I did not return to any formal
review of what I had learned. (I was busy trying to devise another
method for simplifying the study of the reading of the characters,
which was later completed as a companion volume to the first.3) When I
would meet a new character, I would learn it as I had the others, but I
have never felt the need to retrace my steps or repeat any of the work.
Admittedly, the fact that I now use the kanji daily in my teaching,
research, and writing is a distinct advantage. But I remain convinced
that whatever facility I have I owe to the procedures outlined in this
book.Perhaps only one who has seen the method through to the end can
appreci-ate both how truly uncomplicated and obvious it is, and how
accessible to any average student willing to invest the time and
effort. For while the method is simple and does eliminate a great deal
of wasted effort, the task is still not an easy one. It requires as
much stamina, concentration, and imagination as one can bring to
it.James W. HeisigBarcelona, Spain21 December 20003Remembering the
Kanji 2: A Systematic Guide to Reading Japanese Characters (Hono-lulu:
University of Hawai‘i Press, 22nd impression, 2007). A German edition
appeared under the title Die Kanji lernen und behalten 2: Systematische
Anleitung zu den Lesungen der japa-nischen Schriftzeichen (Frankfurt:
Klostermann, 2006). The second volume was later fol-lowed by
Remembering the Kanji 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for
Upper-Level Proficiency (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 3rd
impression, 2007), prepared with Tanya Sienko.
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part oneStories
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Lesson 1Let us begin with a group of 15 kanji, all of which you
probably knew before you ever cracked the covers of this book. Each
kanji has been provided with a single key word to represent the basic
meaning. Some of these characters will also serve later as primitive
elements to help form other kanji, when they will take a meaning
different from the meaning they have as kanji. Although it is not
necessary at this stage to memorize the special primitive meaning of
these characters, a special remark preceded by a star (*) has been
appended to alert you to the change in meaning.The number of strokes of
each character is given in square brackets at the end of each
explanation, followed by the stroke-by-stroke order of writing. It
cannot be stressed enough how important it is to learn to write each
kanji in its proper order.As easy as these first characters may seem,
study them all with a pad and pencil to get into the habit from the
very start.Finally, note that each key word has been carefully chosen
and should not be tampered with in any way if you want to avoid
confusion later on.1one一In Chinese characters,the number one is laid on
its side,unlike the Roman numeral i which stands upright. As you would
expect, it is written from left to right. [1]一* As a primitive element,
the key-word meaning is discarded,since it is too abstract to be of
much help. Instead, the single horizontal stroke takes on the meaning
of floor or ceiling,depending on its position: if it stands above
another primi-tive,it means ceiling; if below,floor.
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16 | remembering the kanji 12two二Like the Roman numeral ii, which
reduplicates the numeral i, the kanji for two is a simple reduplication
of the horizontal stroke that means one. The order of writing goes from
above to below, with the first stroke slightly shorter. [2]丁
七3three三And like the Roman numeral iii, which triples the numeral i,the
kanji for three simply triples the single horizontal stroke.In writing
it,think of“1 + 2 = 3”(一+二=三) in order to keep the middle stroke
shorter. [3]万 丈 三4four�ۛThis kanji is composed of two primitive
elements,mouth �ϣand human legs 乳, both of which we will meet in the
coming les-sons. Assuming that you already knew how to write this
kanji,we will pass over the “story”connected with it until later.Note
how the second stroke is written left-to-right and then
top-to-bottom.This is consistent with what we have already seen in the
first three numbers and leads us to a general principle that will be
helpful when we come to more complicated kanji later on: write
north-to-south, west-to-east, northwest-to-southeast. [5]上 下 不 与
丐5five五As with four, we shall postpone learning the primitive elements
that make up this character. Note how the general principle we just
learned in the preceding frame applies to the writing of the character
for five. [4]丑 且 丕 世
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lesson 1| 176six�ŭThe primitives here are top hat and animal legs. Once
again, we glide over them until later. [4]丗 丘 丙 丞7seven七Note that the
first stroke “cuts”through the second.This distin-guishes seven from
the character for spoon �̕ (frame 444), in which the horizontal stroke
stops short. [2]両 並* As a primitive, this form takes on the meaning of
diced, i.e.,“cut” into little pieces, consistent both with the way the
char-acter is written and with its association with the kanji for cut
�ȇto be learned in a later lesson (frame 85).8eight�ūJust as the Arabic
numeral “8”is composed of a small circle fol-lowed by a larger one, so
the kanji for eight is composed ofa short line followed by a longer
line, slanting towards it but not touching it. And just as the “lazy
8”∞is the mathematical symbol for “infinity,”so the expanse opened up
below these two strokes is associated by the Japanese with the sense of
an infi-nite expanse or something “all-encompassing.”[2]丨 个9nine九If you
take care to remember the stroke order of this kanji, you will not have
trouble later keeping it distinct from the kanji for power �ʛ(frame
858). [2]中 丱
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18 | remembering the kanji 1* As a primitive, we shall use this kanji
to mean baseball teamor simply baseball. The meaning, of course, is
derived from the nine players who make up a team.10ten�́Turn this
character 45º either way and you have the x used for the Roman numeral
ten. [2]串 丶* As a primitive,this character sometimes keeps its meaning
often and sometimes signifies needle,this latter derived from the kanji
for needle �ǝ(frame 274). Since the primitive is used in the kanji
itself, there is no need to worry about confusing the two.In fact,we
shall be following this procedure regularly.11mouth�ϣLike several of the
first characters we shall learn, the kanji for mouth is a clear
pictograph. Since there are no circular shapes in the kanji, the square
must be used to depict the circle. [3]丸 丹 主* As a primitive, this form
also means mouth. Any of the range of possible images that the word
suggests—an opening or entrance to a cave, a river, a bottle, or even
the largest hole in your head—can be used for the primitive
meaning.12day日This kanji is intended to be a pictograph of the sun.
Recalling what we said in the previous frame about round forms,it is
easy to detect the circle and the big smile that characterize our
sim-plest drawings of the sun—like those yellow badges with the
words,“Have a nice day!”[4]丼 丿 乂 乃
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lesson 1| 19* Used as a primitive, this kanji can mean sun or day or a
tongue wagging in the mouth. This latter meaning, inciden-tally,
derives from an old character outside the standard list meaning
something like “sayeth” and written almost exactly the same, except
that the stroke in the middle does not touch the right side (曰,frame
578).13month月This character is actually a picture of the moon, with the
two horizontal lines representing the left eye and mouth of the
mythical “man in the moon.” (Actually, the Japanese see a hare in the
moon,but it is a little farfetched to find one in the kanji.) And one
month, of course, is one cycle of the moon. [4]久 之 乍 乎* As a primitive
element,this character can take on the sense ofmoon, flesh, or part of
the body. The reasons for the latter two meanings will be explained in
a later chapter.14rice field�Another pictograph, this kanji looks like
a bird’s-eye view of a rice field divided into four plots. Be careful
when writing this character to get the order of the strokes correct.
You will find that it follows perfectly the principle stated in frame
4. [5]乏 乕 乖 乗 乘* When used as a primitive element,the meaning of rice
field is most common, but now and again it will take the meaning
ofbrains from the fact that it looks a bit like that tangle of gray
matter nestled under our skulls.15eye�ۮHere again, if we round out the
corners of this kanji and curve the middle strokes upwards and
downwards respectively,we get something resembling an eye. [5]
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20 | remembering the kanji 1乙 九 乞 也 乢* As a primitive, the kanji keeps
its sense of eye, or to be more specific, an eyeball. When placed in
the surroundings of a complex kanji,the primitive will sometimes be
turned on its side like this:��.Although only 9 of the 15 kanji treated
in this lesson are formally listed as prim-itives—the elements that
join together to make up other kanji—some of the others may also take
on that function from time to time, only not with enough frequency to
merit learning them as separate primitive elements and attaching
special meanings to them. In other words, whenever one of the kanji
already learned is used in another kanji, it will retain its key-word
meaning unless we have assigned it a special primitive meaning.Lesson
2In this lesson we learn what a “primitive element”is by using the
first 15 char-acters as pieces that can be fitted together to form new
kanji—19 of them to be exact.Whenever the primitive meaning differs
from the key-word meaning,you may want to go back to the original frame
to refresh your memory. From now on, though, you should learn both the
key-word and the primitive mean-ing of new kanji as they appear. An
Index of primitive elements has been added at the end of the
book.16old�ϤThe primitive elements that compose this character are ten
and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a picto-graph
of a tombstone with a cross on top.Just think back to one of those
graveyards you have visited, or better still, used to play in as a
child, with old inscriptions on the tombstones.This departure from the
primitive elements in favor of a picto-
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lesson 2| 21graph will take place now and again at these early stages,
and almost never after that.So you need not worry about cluttering up
your memory with too many character “drawings.”[5]亂 亅 了 予 争* Used as a
primitive element, this kanji keeps its key-word sense of old, but care
should be taken to make that abstract notion as graphic as
possible.17I�оThere are a number of kanji for the word I, but the others
tend to be more specific than this one. The key word here should be
taken in the general psychological sense of the “perceiving
subject.”Now the one place in our bodies that all five senses are
concentrated in is the head,which has no less than five mouths:2
nostrils, 2 ears, and 1 mouth. Hence, five mouths = I. [7]亊 事 二 于 云 互
五18risk�ƒRemember when you were young and your mother told you never to
look directly into the sun for fear you might burn out your eyes?
Probably you were foolish enough to risk a quick glance once or twice;
but just as probably,you passed that bit offolk wisdom on to someone
else as you grew older. Here, too,the kanji that has a sun above and an
eye right below looking up at it has the meaning of risk (see frame
11). [9]井 亘 亙 些 亡19companion朋The first companion that God made,as the
Bible story goes,was Eve.Upon seeing her,Adam exclaimed,“Flesh of my
flesh!”And that is precisely what this kanji says in so many
strokes.[8]亢 交 亥 亦 亭
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22 | remembering the kanji 120bright明Among nature’s bright lights,
there are two that the biblical myth has God set in the sky: the sun to
rule over the day and the moon to rule the night.Each of them has come
to represent one of the common connotations of this key word: the sun,
the bright insight of the clear thinker, and the moon, the
brightintuition of the poet and the seer (see frame 13). [8]亶
仂21chant�ԱThis one is easy! You have one mouth making no noise (the
choirmaster) and two mouths with wagging tongues (the mini-mum for a
chorus). So think of the key word, chant, as monas-tery singing and the
kanji is yours forever (see frame 11). [11]仇 从 他22sparkle晶What else can
the word sparkle suggest if not a diamond? And if you’ve ever held a
diamond up to the light, you will have noticed how every facet of it
becomes like a miniature sun. This kanji is a picture of a tiny sun in
three places (that is,“everywhere”), to give the sense of something
that sparkles on all sides. Just like a diamond. In writing the
primitive elements three times,note again how the rule for writing
given in frame 4 holds true not only for the strokes in each individual
element but also for the disposition of the elements in the character
as a whole. [12]仝 代 仮23goods�ӁAs in the character for sparkle, the
triplication of a single ele-ment in this character indicates
“everywhere” or “heaps of.”When we think of goods in modern industrial
society,we think of what has been mass-produced—that is to say,
produced for
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lesson 2| 23the “masses” of open mouths waiting like fledglings in a
nest to “consume”whatever comes their way. [9]件 仼 伃24spine�тThis
character is rather like a picture of two of the vertebrae in the spine
linked by a single stroke. [7]伉 伊 伍 伎 伏 伐 休25prosperous昌What we
mentioned in the previous two frames about 3 ofsomething meaning
“everywhere” or “heaps of” was not meant to be taken lightly. In this
kanji we see two suns, one atop the other,which,if we are not
careful,is easily confused in memory with the three suns of sparkle.
Focus on the number this way:since we speak of prosperous times as
sunny, what could be more prosperous than a sky with two suns in it?
Just be sure to actually see them there. [8]伯 伸26early早This kanji is
actually a picture of the first flower of the day,which we shall, in
defiance of botanical science, call the sun-flower,since it begins with
the element for sun and is held up on a stem with leaves (the
pictographic representation of the final two strokes).This
time,however,we shall ignore the pictograph and imagine sunflowers with
needles for stems, which can be plucked and used to darn your socks.The
sense of early is easily remembered if one thinks of the sunflower as
the early riser in the garden, because the sun,showing favoritism
towards its namesake,shines on it before all the others (see frame 10).
[6]伽 佃 但
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24 | remembering the kanji 1* As a primitive element, this kanji takes
the meaning of sun-flower, which was used to make the abstract key word
early more graphic.27rising sun旭This character is a sort of nickname
for the Japanese flag with its well-known emblem of the rising sun.If
you can picture two seams running down that great red sun, and then
imagine it sitting on a baseball bat for a flagpole, you have a
slightly irrev-erent—but not altogether inaccurate—picture of how the
sport has caught on in the Land of the Rising Sun. [6]佇 位 低 住 佐
佑28generation世We generally consider one generation as a period of
thirty (or ten plus ten plus ten) years. If you look at this kanji in
its com-pleted form—not in its stroke order—you will see three
tens.When writing it, think of the lower horizontal lines as
“addi-tion” lines written under numbers to add them up. Thus: ten
“plus” ten “plus” ten = thirty. Actually, it’s a lot easier doing it
with a pencil than reading it in a book. [5]体 何 佖 佗 余29stomach胃You will
need to refer back to frames 13 and 14 here for the special meaning of
the two primitive elements that make up this character: flesh (part of
the body) and brain. What the kanji says, if you look at it, is that
the part of the body that keeps the brain in working order is the
stomach. To keep the elements in proper order, when you write this
kanji think of the brain as being “held up”by the flesh. [9]佞 佳
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lesson 2| 2530nightbreak旦While we normally refer to the start of the
day as “daybreak,”Japanese commonly refers to it as the “opening up of
night”into day. Hence the choice of this rather odd key word,
nightbreak.The single stroke at the bottom represents the floor (have a
peek again at frame 1) or the horizon over which the sun is poking its
head. [5]佼 使31gall bladder胆The pieces in this character should be
easily recognizable: on the left, the element for part of the body, and
on the right, the character for nightbreak, which we have just met.
What all ofthis has to do with the gall bladder is not immediately
clear.But all we need to do is give a slight twist to the traditional
bibli-cal advice about not letting the sun set on your anger (which
ancient medicine associated with the choler or bile that the gall
bladder is supposed to filter out), and change it to “not letting the
night break on your anger” (or your gall)—and the work of remembering
the kanji is done.And the improvement is not a bad piece of advice in
its own right, since anger, like so many other things, can often be
calmed by letting the sun set on it and then“sleeping it off.” [9]侊
侒32span亘“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset…”goes the song of the Fiddler
on the Roof. You can almost see the journey of the sun as it moves from
one horizon (the floor) to its noonday heights in the sky overhead
(ceiling) and then disappears over the other horizon—day after day,
marking the span of our lives. [6]侔 供 依
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26 | remembering the kanji 1We end this lesson with two final
pictographic characters that happen to be among the easiest to
recognize for their form, but among the most difficult to write. We
introduce them here to run an early test on whether or not you have
been paying close attention to the stroke order of the kanji you have
been learning.33concave�ǹYou couldn’t have asked for a better key word
for this kanji! Just have a look at it: a perfect image of a concave
lens (remember-ing, of course, that the kanji square off rounded
things), com-plete with its own little “cave.” Now all you have to do
is learn how to write it. [5]侠 価 侫 侭 侮34convex�ǸMaybe this helps you see
how the Japanese have no trouble keeping convex distinct from concave.
Note the odd feeling ofthe third stroke.If it doesn’t feel all that
strange now,by the time you are done with this book, it will. There are
very few times you will have to write it. [5]侯 侵 侶 便 係Lesson 3After
Lesson 2, you should now have some idea of how an apparently com-plex
and difficult kanji can be broken down into simple elements that make
remembering it a great deal easier.After completing this lesson you
should have a clearer idea of how the course is laid out.We merely add
a couple of primi-tive elements to the kanji we already know and see
how many new kanji we can form—in this case, 18 in all—and when we run
out, add more primitives.And so on,until there are no kanji left.
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lesson 3| 27In Lesson 3 you will also be introduced to primitive
elements that are not themselves kanji but only used to construct other
kanji. These are marked with a star [*] instead of a number. There is
no need to make a special effort to memorize them.The sheer frequency
with which most of them show up should make remembering them
automatic.*walking stick丨This primitive element is a picture of just
what it looks like: a cane or walking stick.It carries with it the
connotations of lame-ness and whatever else one associates with the use
of a cane.Rarely—but very rarely—it will be laid on its side. Whenever
this occurs, it will always be driven through the middle ofsome other
primitive element. In this way, you need not worry about confusing it
with the primitive meanings of one. [1]促*a drop of俄The meaning of this
primitive is obvious from the first moment you look at it, though just
what it will be a drop of will differ from case to case. The important
thing is not to think of it as something insignificant like a “drop in
the bucket”but as some-thing so important that it can change the whole
picture—like a drop of arsenic in your mother-in-law’s coffee. [1]俄* In
general, it is written from right to left, but there are times when it
can be slanted left to right. At other times it can be stretched out a
bit. (In cases where you have trouble remem-bering this, it may help to
think of it as an eyedropper drip-ping drops of something or other.)
Examples will follow in this lesson.35olden times旧A walking stick is
needed for days of olden times, since days,too,get old—at least insofar
as we refer to them as the “good old
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28 | remembering the kanji 1days.” The main thing here is to think of
“good old days” when you hear the key word olden times. The rest will
take care ofitself. [5]俉 俐36oneself自You can think of this kanji as a
stylized pictograph of the nose,that little drop that Mother Nature set
between your eyes. The Japanese refer to themselves by pointing a
finger at their nose—giving us an easy way to remember the kanji for
oneself. [6]俑 俔 俗 俘 俚 俛* The same meaning of oneself can be kept when
this kanji is used as a primitive element, but you will generally find
it bet-ter to give it the meaning of nose or nostrils, both because it
accords with the story above and because it is the first part ofthe
kanji for nose (frame 678).37white�ٽThe color white is a mixture of all
the primary colors, both for pigments and for light, as we see when a
prism breaks up the rays of the sun. Hence, a single drop of sun spells
white. [5]保 俟 信 俣 俤* As a primitive, this character can either retain
its meaning of white or take the more graphic meaning of a white bird
or dove. This latter stems from the fact that it appears at the top of
the kanji for bird, which we shall get to later (frame
1941).38hundred�پThe Japanese refer to a person’s 99th birthday as a
“white year”because white is the kanji you are left with if you
subtract onefrom a hundred. [6]俥 修 俯 俳 俵 俶
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lesson 3| 2939in中The elements here are a walking stick and a mouth.
Remember the trouble your mother had getting medicine in your mouth?
Chances are it crossed her mind more than once to grab some-thing
handy, like your grandfather’s walking stick, to pry open your jaws
while she performed her duty.Keep the image of get-ting something in
from the outside, and the otherwise abstract sense of this key word
should be a lot easier than trying to spoon castor oil into a baby’s
mouth. [4]俸 俺 俾 俿40thousand�̓This kanji is almost too simple to pull
apart, but for the sake ofpractice, have a look at the drop above and
the ten below. Now put the elements together by thinking of squeezing
two more zeros out of an eyedropper alongside the number ten to make it
a thousand. [3]��� ��� ���41tongue舌The primitive for mouth and the character
for thousand natu-rally form the idea of tongue if one thinks of a
thousand mouthsable to speak the same language, or as we say,“sharing a
com-mon tongue.”It is easy to see the connection between the idiom and
the kanji if you take its image literally:a single tongue being passed
around from mouth to mouth. [6]��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ���42measuring box�͇This is the
character for the little wooden box that the Japanese use for measuring
things, as well as for drinking saké out of.Simply imagine the outside
as spiked with a thousand sharp needles, and the quaint little
measuring box becomes a drinker’s nightmare!
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30 | remembering the kanji 1Be very careful when you write this
character not to confuse it with the writing of thousand.The reason for
the difference gives us a chance to clarify another general principle
of writing that supersedes the one we mentioned in frame 4: when a
single stroke runs vertically through the middle of a char-acter, it is
written last. [4]��� ��� ��� ���43rise up昇Our image here is made up of two
primitive elements: a sunand a measuring box. Just as the sun can be
seen rising up in the morning from—where else—the Land of the Rising
Sun,this kanji has the sun rising up out of a Japanese measuring
box—the “measuring box of the rising-up sun.”[8]��� ���44round丸We speak of
“round numbers,” or “rounding a number off,”meaning to add an
insignificant amount to bring it to the near-est 10. For instance, if
you add just a wee bit, the tiniest drop, to nine, you end up with a
round number. [3]��� ��� ���* As a primitive, this element takes the meaning
of a fat man.Think of a grotesquely fat man whose paunch so covers the
plate that he is always getting hit by the pitch. Hence a round
baseball player becomes a fat man.45measurement��This kanji actually
stood for a small measurement used prior to the metric system, a bit
over an inch in length, and from there acquired the sense of
measurement. In the old system, it was one-tenth of a shaku (whose
kanji we shall meet in frame1070). The picture, appropriately,
represents one drop of a ten(with a hook!). [3]
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lesson 3| 31��� ��� ���* As a primitive,we shall use this to mean glue or
glued to.There is no need to devise a story to remember this,since the
primi-tive will appear so often you would have to struggle hard notto
remember it.46specialty���Ten ...rice fields ...glue.That is how one
would read the primi-tive elements of this kanji from top to bottom.
Now if we make a simple sentence out of these elements, we get:“Ten
rice fieldsglued together.”A specialty, of course, refers to one’s
special “field” of endea-vor or competence. In fact, few people remain
content with a single specialty and usually extend themselves in other
fields as well. This is how we come to get the picture of ten fields
gluedtogether to represent a specialty. [9]��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ���47Dr.�͚At
the left we have the needle; at the right,the kanji for specialty,plus
an extra drop at the top. Think of a Dr. who is a specialist with a
needle (an acupuncturist) and let the drop at the top rep-resent the
period at the end of Dr.In principle we are trying to avoid this kind
of device, which plays on abstract grammatical conventions; but I think
you will agree, after you have had occasion to use the right side of
this kanji in forming other kanji, that the exception is merited in
this case. [12]�؉ �ؔ �ؖ �ؗ �ؘ �؛ �ة �د �ر �ز �ش �ض* The primitive form of this
kanji eliminates the needle on the left and gets the meaning of an
acupuncturist.
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32 | remembering the kanji 1We have already seen one example of how to
form primitives from other primi-tives, when we formed the nightbreak
out of sun and floor (frame 30). Let us take two more examples of this
procedure right away,so that we can do so from now on without having to
draw any particular attention to the fact.*divining rod�͜This is a
picture of a divining rod, composed of a drop and a walking stick, but
easy enough to remember as a pictograph.Alternately, you can think of
it as a magic wand. In either case,it should suggest images of magic or
fortune-telling.Nowadays it is written in the stroke order given here
when it appears as a primitive, but until recently the order was often
reversed (in order to instill correct habits for more stylized
cal-ligraphy). [2]��� ���* Although it falls outside of the list of
general-use kanji, this element is actually a kanji in its own right,
having virtually the same meaning as the kanji in the next
frame.48fortune-telling�͠This is one of those kanji that is a real joy
of simplicity: a divin-ing rod with a mouth—which translate directly
into fortune-telling.Note how the movement from top to bottom (the
movement in which the kanji are written) is also the order of the
elements which make up our story and of the key word itself: first
divin-ing rod, then mouth. This will not always be possible, but where
it is, memory has almost no work at all to do. [5]��� ��� ��� ��� ���49above上The
two directions,above and below,are usually pointed at with the finger.
But the characters do not follow that custom, so we have to choose
something else, easily remembered. The prim-
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lesson 3| 33itives show a magic wand standing above a
floor—“magically,”you might say.Anyway, go right on to the next frame,
since the two belong together and are best remembered as a unit, just
as the words above and below suggest each other. [3]��� ��� ���50below下Here
we see our famous miraculous magic wand hanging, all on its own, below
the ceiling, as you probably already guessed would happen. In addition
to giving us two new kanji, the two shapes given in this and the
preceding frame also serve to fix the use of the primitives for ceiling
and floor, by drawing our attention successively to the line standing
above and below the primitive element to which it is related. [3]��� ���
���51eminent�͓The word eminent suggests a famous or well-known person.So
all you need to do—given the primitives of a magic wand and a
sunflower—is to think of the world’s most eminent magician as one who
uses a sunflower for a magic wand (like a flower-child who goes around
turning the world into peace and love). [8]��� �€ �… � �‘ �” �˜ �™*mist聢Here is
our second example of a primitive composed of other primitives but not
itself a kanji. At the bottom is the primi-tive (also a kanji) for
early or sunflower. At the top, a needle.Conveniently, mist falls early
in the morning, like little needlesof rain, to assure that the
sunflower blooms early as we have learned it should. [8]�š �¬ � �² �³ �´ �µ �·
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34 | remembering the kanji 152morning朝On the right we see the moon
fading off into the first light ofmorning, and to the left, the mist
that falls to give nature a shower to prepare it for the coming heat.If
you can think of the moon tilting over to spill mist on your garden,
you should have no trouble remembering which of all the elements in
this story are to serve as primitives for constructing the character.
[12]�· �ÉLesson 4At the risk of going a little bit too fast, we are now
going to introduce five new primitive elements, all of which are very
easy to remember, either because of their frequency or because of their
shape. But remember: there is no reason to study the primitives by
themselves. They are being presented systematically to make their
learning automatic.*animal legs亀Like the four that follow it,this
primitive is not a kanji in its own right, though it is said to be
derived from �ū, the character we learned earlier for eight. It always
comes at the bottom of the primitive to which it is related.It can mean
the legs of any kind of animal: from a grizzly bear’s paws to an
octopus’s tentacles to the spindle shanks of a spider.(The one animal
not allowed is our friend homo sapiens, whose legs figure in the next
frame.) Even where the term “legs” will apply metaphorically to the
legs of pieces of furniture,it is best to keep the association with
ani-mal legs. (You may review frame 6 here.) [2]乾 亀*human legs聡Notice
how these human legs are somewhat shapelier and more highly evolved
than those of the so-called “lower animals.” The
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lesson 4| 35one on the left,drawn first,is straight;while the one on
the right bends gracefully and ends with a hook. Though they are not
likely to suggest the legs of any human you know, they do have
something of the look of someone out for a stroll, especially ifyou
compare them to animal legs.If you had any trouble with the kanji for
the number four,now would be the time to return to it (frame 4). [2]乱
乳*wind�ǠThis primitive gets its name from the full kanji for the
wind(frame 524). It is called an “enclosure” because other elements are
often drawn in the middle of it, though it can also be com-pressed
together so that there is no room for anything in it.The main thing to
remember when writing this element is that the second stroke bends
outwards,like a gust of wind blown from above. In addition to the basic
meaning of wind, we shall also have occasion to use the image of a
weather vane. The deriva-tion is obvious. [2]�Ñ �Õ*bound up�˹Like wind,
the element meaning bound up is also an enclosure that can wrap itself
around other elements or be compressed when there is nothing to
enclose. When this latter happens—usually because there is not enough
room—and it is set on top,the little hook at the end is dropped off,
like this: 聴.The sense of bound up is that of being “tied and gagged”
or wrapped up tightly. If you have trouble remembering when it serves
as an enclosure (with the hook) and when not (without the hook),you
might think of the former as a chain and the lat-ter as a rope. [2]�Ö �Ø
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36 | remembering the kanji 1*horns�ÞThis primitive element always
appears at the top of the ele-ment to which it is related, and is
always attached, or almost attached,to the first horizontal line to
come under it.The hornscan never simply be left hanging in the air.
When there is no line available, an extra horizontal stroke (like a
one) is added.The final kanji of this lesson gives an example.The
meaning of this element is wide enough to embrace the horns of bulls,
rams, billy goats, and moose, but not the fam-ily of musical
instruments. As with other elements with such “open” meanings, it is
best to settle on one that you find most vivid and stick with that
image consistently. [2]�Ú �Þ53only�ϪWhen we run across abstract key words
like this one, the best way to get an image it to recall some common
but suggestive phrase in which the word appears. For instance, we can
think of the expression “it’s the only one of its kind.”Then we imagine
a barker at a side-show advertising some strange pac-man like creature
he has inside his tent, with only a gigantic mouth and two wee animal
legs. [5]�ã �å �ç �í �î54shellfish貝To remember the primitive elements that
make up this kanji,an eye and animal legs, you might be tempted to
think of it as a pictograph of a shellfish with its ridged shell at the
top and two little legs sticking out of the bottom.But that might not
help you recall later just how many ridges to put on the shell. Better
to imagine a freakish shellfish with a single, gigantic eye roaming the
beaches on its slender little legs, scaring the wits out of the
sunbathers. [7]�ô �õ �ù �û �Ā �ā �Ă
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lesson 4| 37* When used as a primitive, in addition to shells, the
meanings oyster and clam will often come in handy.55upright貞Now take
the last primitive, the shellfish, and set a magic wandover it, and you
have the kanji for upright. After all, the clamand the oyster are
incapable of walking upright. It would take a magician with his wand to
pull off such a feat—which is pre-cisely what we have in this kanji.
[9]�ĉ �ğ56employee�ӡHow do we get a mouth over a shellfish to mean an
employee? Simple. Just remember the advice new employees get about
keeping their mouths shut and doing their job, and then make that more
graphic by picturing an office building full of white-collar workers
scurrying around with clams pinched to their mouths. [10]�IJ �Ł57see見The
elements that compose the character for see are the eyefirmly fixed to
a pair of human legs. Surely, somewhere in your experience, there is a
vivid image just waiting to be dragged up to help you remember this
character…. [7]�Ń �ń �Ņ �ņ �Ň �ň �ʼn58newborn babe�ŐThe top part of the kanji in
this frame, you will remember, is the character for olden times, those
days so old they needed a walking stick to get around. Western mythical
imagination has old “Father Time” leaning on his sickle with a newborn
babe crawling around his legs, the idea being that the circle of
birth-and-death goes on.
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38 | remembering the kanji 1This is the first of three times that the
kanji for olden times will appear in this book as a primitive element
in another kanji, so try to make the most of it. [7]�Ŋ �Ŏ �Ő
�Œ59beginning�Ń“In the beginning…” starts that marvelous shelf of books
we call the Bible. It talks about how all things were made, and tells
us that when the Creator came to humanity she made two ofthem, man and
woman. While we presume she made two ofevery other animal as well, we
are not told as much. Hence we need only two and a pair of human legs
come to the kanji that means beginning. [4]�Ŕ �Ś �Ŝ �Ţ60page���What we have
to do here is turn a shellfish into a page of a book.The one at the top
tells us that we only get a rather short book,in fact a book of only
one page. Imagine a title printed on the shell of an oyster, let us say
“Pearl of Wisdom,” and then open the quaint book to its one and only
page, on which you find a single,radiant drop of wisdom,one of the
masterpiece poems ofnature. [9]�Ť �ť �Ũ �ũ �Ū �ū �Ŭ �ŭ �Ů* As a primitive, this
kanji takes the unrelated meaning of a head (preferably one detached
from its body), derived from the character for head (frame
1441).61stubborn���This character refers to the blockheaded, persistent
stubborn-ness of one who sticks to an idea or a plan just the way it
was at the beginning, without letting anything that comes up along the
way alter things in the least. The explanation makes “sense,”but is
hard to remember because the word “beginning” is too
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lesson 4| 39abstract.Back up to the image we used two frames ago—Adam
and Eve in their Eden—and try again: The root of all stubborn-ness goes
back to the beginning, with two brothers each stub-bornly defending his
own way of life and asking their God to bless it favorably.Abel stuck
to agriculture,Cain to animal-rais-ing.Picture these two with their
giant,swelled heads,each vying for the favors of heaven, a stubborn
grimace on their faces. No wonder something unfortunate happened! [13]�ŷ
�ƌ62mediocre�ǡWhile we refer to something insignificant as a “drop in the
bucket,”the kanji for mediocre suggests the image of a “drop in the
wind.”[3]�� �� ��63defeat負Above we have the condensed form of bound up,and
below the familiar shellfish. Now imagine two oysters engaged in
shell-to-shell combat, the one who is defeated being bound and
gaggedwith seaweed, the victor towering triumphantly over it. The bound
shellfish thus becomes the symbol for defeat. [9]�Ə �Ɨ64ten
thousand万Japanese counts higher numbers in units often thousand,unlike
the West, which advances according to units of one thousand.(Thus,for
instance,40,000 would be read “four ten-thousands”by a Japanese.) Given
that the comma is used in larger numbers to bind up a numerical unit of
one thousand, the elements for one and bound up naturally come to form
ten thousand.The order of strokes here needs special attention,both
because it falls outside the general principles we have learned
already,and because it involves writing the element for bound up in an
order opposite to the one we learned. If it is any consolation,
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40 | remembering the kanji 1this happens every time these three strokes
come together. [3]�ƙ �Ɲ �Ơ65phrase�ϥBy combining the two primitives bound
up and mouth,it is easy to see how this character can get the meaning
of a phrase.After all,a phrase is nothing more than a number of words
bound uptightly and neatly so that they will fit in your mouth. [5]�Ƣ �Ƥ
�ƥ �Ʀ �ƨ66texture肌Ever notice how the texture of your face and hands is
affected by the wind? A day’s skiing or sailing makes them rough and
dry, and in need of a good soft cream to soothe the burn. So whenever a
part of the body gets exposed to the wind,its texture is affected.(If
it is any help,the Latin word hiding inside texture connotes how
something is “to the touch.”) [6]�Ʒ �ƾ67decameron旬There simply is not a
good phrase in English for the block often days which this character
represents. So we resurrect the classical phrase, decameron, whose
connotations the tales ofBoccaccio have done much to enrich. Actually,
it refers to a journey of ten days taken by a band of people—that is, a
group of people bound together for the days of the decameron. [6]�Dž
�nj68ladle�˺If you want to bind up drops of anything—water, soup,
lemon-ade—you use something to scoop these drops up,which is what we
call a ladle. See the last drop left inside the ladle? [3]
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lesson 5| 41�Í �Ï69bull’s eye�ڄThe elements white bird and ladle easily
suggest the image ofa bull’s eye if you imagine a rusty old ladle with
a bull’s eyepainted on it in the form of a tiny white bird,who lets out
a little “peep”every time you hit the target. [8]�ǝ �Ǧ70neck��Reading this
kanji from the top down, we have: horns . . . nose.Together they bring
to mind the picture of a moose-head hang-ing on the den wall, with its
great horns and long nose. Now while we would speak of cutting off a
moose’s “head” to hang on the wall, the Japanese speak of cutting off
its neck. It’s all a matter of how you look at it. Anyway, if you let
the word neck conjure up the image of a moose with a very l-o-n-g neck
hang-ing over the fireplace, whose horns you use for a coat-rack and
whose nose has spigots left and right for scotch and water, you should
have no trouble with the character.Here we get a good look at what we
mentioned when we first introduced the element for horns: that they can
never be left floating free and require an extra horizontal stroke to
prevent that from happening, as is the case here. [9]�ǧ �ǩ �Ǫ �Ǭ �ǭ �ǰ �DZ �ǵ
�ǶLesson 5That is about all we can do with the pieces we have
accumulated so far, but as we add each new primitive element to those
we already know,the number ofkanji we will be able to form will
increase by leaps and bounds.If we were to step outside of the standard
list, we would see that there are
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42 | remembering the kanji 1actually any number of other kanji that we
could learn at this time. Just to give you an idea of some of the
possibilities (though you should not bother to learn them now),here are
a few,with their meanings:�Ԅ(pop
song),泪(teardrops),�Ћ(inch),肘(elbow),�ϱ(scolding).While many of the
stories you have learned in the previous lessons are actu-ally more
complex than the majority you will learn in the later chapters, they
are the first stories you have learned, and for that reason are not
likely to cause you much difficulty. By now, however, you may be
wondering just how to go about reviewing what you have learned.
Obviously it won’t do simply to flip through the pages you have already
studied, because the order already gives them away. The best method is
to design for yourself a set of flash cards that you can add to as you
go through the book.If you have not already started doing this on your
own, you might try it this way: Buy heavy paper (about twice the
thickness of normal index cards),unlined and with a semigloss finish.
Cut it into cards of about 9 cm. long and 6 cm. wide. On one side, make
a large ball-pen drawing of one kanji in the top two-thirds of the
card.(Writing done with fountain pens and felt-tip pens tends to smear
with the sweat that comes from holding them in your hands for a long
time.) On the bottom right-hand corner,put the number of the frame in
which the kanji appeared. On the back side, in the upper left-hand
corner, write the key word meaning of the character. Then draw a line
across the middle of the card and another line about 2 cm. below it.
The space between these two lines can be used for any notes you may
need later to remind you of the primitive elements or stories you used
to remember the character. Only fill this in whenyou need to,but make a
card for every kanji as soon as you have learned it.The rest of the
space on the card you will not need now, but later, when you study the
readings of the characters, you might use the space above the double
lines. The bottom half of the card, on both sides, can be left free for
inserting kanji compounds (front side) and their readings and meanings
(back side).A final note about reviewing. You have probably gotten
yourself into the habit of writing the character several times when
memorizing it, whether you need to or not; and then writ-ing it more
times for kanji that you have trouble remem-bering.There is really no
need to write the kanji more than once, unless you have trouble with
the stroke-order and want to get a better “feel” for it. If a kanji
causes you trou-ble, spend time clarifying the ���50belowfloor with
magicwand below
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lesson 5| 43imagery of its story.Simply rewriting the character will
reinforce any latent sus-picions you still have that the “tried and
true method” of learning by repeating is the only reliable one—the very
bias we are trying to uproot.Also, when you review,review only from the
key word to the kanji,not the other way around.The reasons for
this,along with further notes on reviewing,will come later.We are now
ready to return to work, adding a few new primitives one by one, and
seeing what new characters they allow us to form.We shall cover 24 new
kanji in this lesson.71fish guts乙The kanji shown here actually
represents the “second” position in the old Chinese zodiac, which the
Japanese still use as an alternate way of enumeration, much the same
way that English will revert to Roman numerals. Among its many other
mean-ings are “pure,” “tasteful,” “quaint,” and—get this!—fish
guts.Since it is a pictograph of a fishhook, it should not be hard to
associate it with the key word. [1]�Ǹ* We will keep fishhook as the
primitive meaning.Its shape will rarely be quite the same as that of
the kanji.When it appears at the bottom of another primitive, it is
straightened out,almost as if the weight of the upper element had bent
it out of shape: 肌.And when it appears to the right of another
ele-ment, the short horizontal line that gets the shape started is
omitted and it is stretched out and narrowed, all for reasons of space
and aesthetics: 肋.Examples follow.72riot乱In a riot, manners are laid
aside and tempers get short, even in so courtesy-conscious a land as
Japan. This kanji shows what happens to a rioting tongue: it gets
“barbed”like a fishhook,and sets to attacking the opposition, to hook
them as it were. [7]�ȃ �Ȅ
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44 | remembering the kanji 173straightaway�۴Begin with the top two
primitives,needle and eye.Together they represent the eye of a needle.
Below them is a fishhook that has been straightened out and its barb
removed so that it can pass through the eye of the needle. [8]�Ȇ �ȇ �Ȉ �Ȋ �ȋ
�Ȏ �ȑ �Ȕ*tool聲Although this primitive is not very common, it is useful to
know, as the following examples will show. Conveniently, it is always
drawn at the very bottom of any kanji in which it fig-ures. The first
stroke, the horizontal one, is detached from any-thing above it, but is
necessary to distinguish tool from animallegs.The sense of the element
is a carpenter’s tool,which comes from its pictographic representation
of a small table with legs (make them animal legs if you need a more
graphic image), so that any element lying on top of it will come to be
viewed as a tool in the hands of a carpenter. [3]�ȕ �ȗ �ȝ74tool�ŷHere is
the full kanji on which the last frame is based. If you can think of a
table full of carpenter’s tools of all sorts, each equipped with its
own eye so that it can keep a watch over what you are doing with it,
you won’t have trouble later keeping the primitive and the kanji apart.
[8]�Ȫ �Ȯ �Ȱ �ȳ75true�ܟHere again we meet the composite element, eye of the
needle,which here combines with tool to give us a measure of what is
true and what is not. [10]�ȶ �ȷ �Ƀ �Ɋ
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lesson 5| 45*by one’s side聳This primitive has the look of ten, except
that the left stroke is bent down toward the left. It indicates where
your hands (your ten fingers) fall when you let them droop: by your
side.The stroke order of this character can be reversed;but which-ever
stroke is written second,that stroke should be drawn lon-ger than the
other. The difference is slight, and all but unno-ticeable in printed
characters, but it should be learned all the same. [2]�ɋ �Ɍ �� �ɥ
�ɩ76craft���The pictograph of an I beam,like the kind that is used in
heavy construction work on buildings and bridges, gives us the
char-acter for craft in general. [3]�ɍ �ɏ �ɔ* As a primitive element, the
key word retains the meaning ofcraft and also takes on the related
meanings of I beam and artificial.77left���By combining the primitive and
the kanji of the last two frames and reading the results, we get: by
one’s side . . . craft.Conveniently, the left has traditionally been
considered the “sinister” side, where dark and occult crafts are
cultivated. Note how the second stroke droops over to the left and is
longer than the first. [5]�ɖ �ɛ �ɞ �ɣ �ɤ78right�ϳWhen thinking of the key
word right, in order to avoid con-fusion with the previous frame, take
advantage of the double-meaning here, too. Imagine a little mouth
hanging down by your side—like a little voice of conscience—telling you
the
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46 | remembering the kanji 1right thing to do. Here the second stroke
should reach out to the right and be drawn slightly longer than the
first. [5]�ɥ �ɩ �ɪ �ɯ �ɰ79possess有The picture here is of someone with a slab
of meat dangling by the side, perhaps from a belt or rope tied around
the waist.Think of it as an evil spirit in possession of one’s soul,
who can be exorcized only by allowing fresh meat to hang by one’sside
until it begins to putrefy and stink so bad that the demon departs.
Take careful note of the stroke order. [6]�ɱ �ɲ �ɳ �ɴ �ɵ �ɽ80bribe賄To the
left we have the primitive for a shellfish, and to the right the kanji
we just learned for possess. Keep the connotation of the last frame for
the word possess, and now expand your image of shells to include the
ancient value they had as money (a usage that will come in very helpful
later on). Now one who is possessed by shells is likely to abandon any
higher principles to acquire more and more wealth. These are the
easiest ones to bribe with a few extra shells. [13]�ʑ �ʠ81tribute貢A
tribute has a kind of double-meaning in English: honor paid freely and
money collected by coercion. Simply because a ruler bestows a noble
name on a deed is hardly any consolation to the masses who must part
with their hard-earned money. Little wonder that this ancient craft of
getting money by calling it a tribute has given way to a name closer to
how it feels to those who pay it: a tax. [10]�ʩ �ʴ
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lesson 5| 4782paragraph���To the right we see a head and to the left an
element that means craft.When we think of a paragraph,we immediately
think of a heading device to break a text into parts.(Think of the
elaborate heads often seen at the start of medieval manuscripts and the
task becomes easier still.) Just where and how to do it belongs to the
writer’s craft. Hence, we define paragraphing as the “head-ing craft”to
remember this character. [12]�ʼ �˒83sword�ȀAlthough this kanji no longer
looks very much like a sword, it does have some resemblance to the
handle of the sword.This is to our advantage,in that it helps us make a
distinction between two primitive elements based on this kanji. [2]�˕ �˗*
In the form of the kanji, this primitive means a dagger.When it appears
to the right of another element, it is commonly stretched out like
this�Ȃand takes the sense of a great and flashing saber, a meaning it
gets from a character we shall learn later (frame 1671).84blade�ȃThink
of using a dagger as a razor blade, and it shouldn’t be hard to imagine
cutting yourself. See the little drop of blood clinging to the blade?
[3]�˘ �˙ �˛85cut�ȇTo the right we see the dagger and next to it the number
sevenwhose primitive meaning we decided would be diced (frame7). It is
hard to think of cutting anything with a knife with-out imagining one
of those skillful Japanese chefs. Only let us
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48 | remembering the kanji 1say that he has had too much to drink at a
party, grabs a dag-ger lying on the mantelpiece and starts dicing up
everything in sight, starting with the hors d’oeuvres and going on to
the fur-niture and the carpets…. [4]�˝ �˞ �˟ �ˠ86seduce�ϬA sword or dagger
posed over a mouth is how the character for “beckoning” is written. The
related but less tame key word seduce was chosen because it seemed to
fit better with the—how shall we put it?—Freudian implications of the
kanji. (Observe if you will that it is not sure whether the long
slender object is seducing the small round one or vice versa.) [5]�ˣ �˲*
The primitive meaning remains the same: seduce. Just be sure to
associate it with a very concrete image.87shining昭Let the key word
suggest shining one’s shoes, the purpose ofwhich is to seduce the sun
down on them for all to see. [9]�˹ �́88rule�ɇThe character depicts a clam
alongside a great and flashing saber. Think of digging for clams in an
area where there are gaming rules governing how large a find has to be
before you can keep it.So you take your trusty saber,which you have
care-fully notched like a yardstick,crack open a clam,and then mea-sure
the poor little beastie to see if it is as long as the rules say it has
to be. [9]�̏ �̕
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lesson 5| 49*wealth聯To prepare for following frame, we introduce here a
somewhat rare primitive meaning wealth. It takes its meaning from the
common image of the overwealthy as also being overfed. More
specifically, the kanji shows us one single mouth devouring all the
harvest of the fields, presumably while those who labor in them go
hungry. Think of the phrase exactly as it is written when you draw the
character, and the disposition of the ele-ments is easy. [9]�̖ �̚
�̤89vice-�ɯThe key word vice has the sense of someone second-in-com-mand.
The great and flashing saber to the right (its usual loca-tion, so you
need not worry about where to put it from now on) and the wealth on the
left combine to create an image ofdividing one’s property to give a
share to one’s vice-wealth-holder. [11]�̿ �̀ �́90separate�ȥIn the Old East,
the samurai and his saber were never sepa-rated. They were constant
companions, like the cowboy of the Old West and his six-shooter. This
character depicts what must have been the height of separation-anxiety
for a samurai: to be bound up with a rope and unable to get at his
saber leaning only a few feet away from him.Look at that mouth
bellowing out for shame and sorrow!Note the order in which the element
for tied up is written—just as it had been with the character for ten
thousand. [7]�͆ �͇ �͈ �͊
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50 | remembering the kanji 191street丁The picture here is of a street
sign on a long pole: Hollywood and Vine, if you please, or any street
that immediately conjures up the image of a street sign to you. [2]�͍ �͑*
Used as a primitive, we change the meaning of the key word and take the
shape to signify a nail or a spike. Should it hap-pen, on reviewing,
that you find the pictographs get jumbled,then think of jerking a
street sign out of the ground and using it as a nail to repair your
garage roof.92village�ԺStreet signs standing at the corner of the rice
fields depict the village limits. (Remember what was said earlier: when
used as a primitive, a kanji may either take its primitive meaning or
revert to the original meaning of its key word.) [7]�͒ �͓ �͔ �͗ �͘ �͚
�͜93can�ϯRemember the story about the “Little Engine that Could”when you
hear this key word, and the rest is simple. See the deter-mined little
locomotive huffing and puffing up the mountain—”I think I can,I think I
can...”—spitting railroad spikes out of its mouth as it chews up the
line to the top. [5]�͞ �͠ �ͦ �ͩ �ͮ94place on the head���The key word is
actually a formal metaphor meaning “humble acceptance.”Reading off the
two primitive elements in the order of their writing, we have: nail . .
. head. As in “hitting the nailon the head.” Now one presumes that most
people can handle metaphors, but if you were to run into a dimwit
working in a hardware store who only knew the literal meaning of
things,
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lesson 6| 51and were to ask him, in your best Japanese, to place on
your head a nail,he might miss the point and cause you considerable
torment. [11]�Ͱ �ͿLesson 6The last group of primitives took us pretty
far, and probably forced you to pay more attention to the workings of
imagination. In this lesson we shall con-centrate on primitives that
have to do with people.As you were reminded in frame 92, even those
kanji that are given special meanings as primitives may also retain
their key word meaning when used as primitives.Although this may sound
confusing,in fact it turns out to be conve-nient for making stories
and, in addition, helps to reinforce the original mean-ing of the
character.95child��This kanji is a pictograph of a child wrapped up in
one of those handy cocoons that Japanese mothers fix to their backs to
carry around young children who cannot get around by themselves.The
first stroke is like a wee head popping out for air;the second shows
the body and legs all wrapped up; and the final stroke shows the arms
sticking out to cling to the mother’s neck. [3]� �΄ �Γ* As a primitive,
the meaning of child is retained, though you might imagine a little
older child, able to run around and get into more mischief.
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52 | remembering the kanji 196cavity��Probably the one thing most
children fear more than anything else is the dentist’s chair.Once a
child has seen a dentist holding the x-rays up to the light and heard
that ominous word cavity,even though it is not likely to know that the
word means “hole”until it is much older, it will not be long before
those two syl-lables get associated with the drill and that row of
shiny hooksthe dentist uses to torture people who are too small to
fight back. [4]�Ζ �Θ �Κ �Ο97complete了Learn this character by returning to
frame 95 and the image given there. The only difference is that the
“arms” have been left off (actually, only tucked inside). Thus a child
with its arms wrapped up into the back-sack is the picture of a job
success-fully completed. [2]�Π �Υ98woman��You have probably seen somewhere
the form of a squatting woman drawn behind this character, with two
legs at the bot-tom, two arms (the horizontal line) and the head poking
out the top. A little farfetched, until you draw the character and feel
the grace and flow of the three simple strokes.Remembering the kanji is
easy; being able to write it beau-tifully is another thing. [3]�Φ �Ψ �Ω*
The primitive meaning is the same: woman.99fond��The phrase “to be fond
of someone” has a natural gentleness about it,and lends a tenderness to
the sense of touching by giv-
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lesson 6| 53ing us the related term “to fondle.” The character likens
it to a woman fondling her child. [6]�ΰ �ζ100likeness��Pardon me if I
revert to the venerable old Dr. Freud again, but his eye for symbolism
is often helpful to appreciate things that more earthy imaginations
once accepted more freely but that we have learned to cover over with a
veneer of etiquette. For instance, the fact that things like the mouth
of a cave served as natural ritual substitutes for the opening through
which a woman gives birth.Hence,in order to be reborn as an adult,one
may have to pass through the psychological equivalent of the womb,that
is,something that bears a likeness to the opening ofthe woman from whom
you were born. [6]�σ �ϊ101mama母Look closely at this kanji and you will
find the outline of the kanji for woman in it, the second stroke of
which has been expanded to make space for the two breasts that make her
a mama. Likening this sound to a baby nursing at its mother’s breast
has afforded some scholars of comparative linguistics a way to explain
the presence of the same word across a wide range of language-groups.
[5]�ϋ �ό �ύ �ώ �ϔ* As a primitive we shall add the meaning of breasts in
accord with the explanation given above.Take careful note of the fact
that the form is altered slightly when this kanji serves as a
primitive, the final two dots joining together to form a longer
stroke.An example follows in the next frame.
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54 | remembering the kanji 1102pierce貫If one is asked to think of
associations for the word pierce,among the first to come to mind is
that of piercing one’s ears to hold earrings, a quite primitive form of
self-mutilation that has survived into the 21st century. The kanji here
is read, top to bottom: mama ...oyster.All you need to do is imagine
piercingan ear so that it can hold a mother-of-pearl (actually, a
mama-of-pearl) you have just wrested from an oyster. [11]�ϖ �ϗ �ϙ �ϛ
�ϥ103elder brother�ńBy now kanji like this one should “look like”
something to you even though it is more of an “ideogram” than a
“pictograph.”The large mouth on top and the human legs below almost
jump off the page as a caricature of elder brother, the one with the
big mouth (or if you prefer a kinder image,the one who “has the
say”among all the children). [5]�Ϫ �Ϭ* As a primitive this character will
take the meaning of teen-ager, in accord with the familiar image of the
big mouth and the gangling,clumsy legs.104overcome�ŋIn this frame we get
a chance to use the kanji we just learned in its primitive meaning of
teenager. The needle on top indicates one of the major problems
confronting the teenager growing up in today’s world: drugs. Many of
them will fall under the shadow of the needle at some time during those
tender years,but only when a whole generation rises up and decides that
“We Shall Overcome” the plague, will the needle cease to hang over
their heads, as it does in this character. [7]�Ϯ �ϳ
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Lesson 7In this lesson we turn to primitive elements having to do with
quantity.We will also introduce a form known as a “roof,”a sort of
overhead “enclosure”that comes in a variety of shapes. But let us begin
slowly and not get ahead of our-selves, for it is only after you have
mastered the simple forms that the appar-ently impenetrable
complexities of later primitives will dissolve.The primitives we give
here will immediately suggest others, on the basis of what we have
already learned. Hence the somewhat haphazard order among the frames
ofthis lesson.105little���The sense of little in this character is not
the same as“a little bit.”That meaning comes in the next frame. Here
little means “small”or “tiny.”The image is one of three little
drops,the first ofwhich (the one in the middle) is written larger so
that the kanji has some shape to it.The point of writing it three times
is to rub the point in: little, little, nothing but little. [3]�϶ �Ϸ �ϸ*
The primitive of the same shape keeps the same meaning.Written above a
horizontal line,its form is slightly altered,the last two strokes
turning inwards like this:聹.106few��First we need to look at the fourth
stroke, the drop at the bot-tom that has been extended into a longer
diagonal stroke lean-ing left.This happens because a single,isolated
drop will never appear beneath its relative primitive in its normal
size, for fear it would drop off and get lost. As for the meaning, let
the tiny drop indicate a further belittling of what is already
little—thus making it a few of something little. [4]
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56 | remembering the kanji 1�Ϻ �Ё �Ѓ �Є107large��Here we have a simple
pictograph of a person, taking up the space of an entire character and
giving it the sense of large. It should not be too hard to locate the
two legs and outstretched arms. [3]�Ј �Љ �Њ* As a primitive,we need a
different meaning,since the element representing the human person will
come up later. Therefore,this shape will become a large dog or, if you
prefer, a St. Ber-nard dog. In frame 238 we will explain why this
choice was made.*cliff�This primitive means precisely what it looks
like: a steep cliff.You can almost see someone standing at the top
looking down into the abyss below. [2]�Ћ �Ќ108many��“Many moons ago,”
begins much of Amerindian folklore—a colorful way of saying “Once upon
a time” and a great deal ofhelp for remembering this kanji.Here we have
two moons(three of them would take us back to the beginning of time,
which is further than we want to go), lacking the final stroke because
they are partially hidden behind the clouds of time. [6]�Ѝ �Ў �Џ �А �Б
�Л109evening��Just as the word evening adds a touch of formality or
romanti-cism to the ordinary word “night,”so the kanji for evening
takes
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lesson 7| 57the ordinary looking moon in the night sky and has a cloud
pass over it (as we saw in the last frame). [3]�Н �П �Р* The primitive
keeps the same meaning and connotation as the kanji.110eventide汐In the
next lesson we will meet the character for morning-tideand the element
for drops of water.Meantime we have a perfect blend of picture and idea
in this kanji to play on the English word for nightfall,eventide: drops
of water inching their way up the shore in the evening. [6]�Ц �Щ �Ы �Ь �Э
�Ю111outside��On the left, the primitive for evening, and on the right,
that for the magic wand. Now, as every magician worth his abraca-dabra
knows, bringing your magic wand out into the eveningair makes your
magic much more powerful than if you were to stay indoors. Hence,
evening and magic wand takes you natu-rally outside. [5]�й
�м112name�ЍPerhaps you have heard of the custom,still preserved in
certain African tribes, of a father creeping into the tent or hut of
his newborn child on the night of the child’s birth, to whisper into
its ear the name he has chosen for it, before making his choice
public.It is an impressive naming custom and fits in tidily with the
way this character is constructed: evening ...mouth. At eve-ning time,
a mouth pronounces the name that will accompany one throughout life.
[6]�р �ш
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58 | remembering the kanji 1113stone�߳With a mouth under a cliff, what
else could we have here but the entrance to a secret cavern, before
which a great stone has been rolled so that none may enter. Perhaps it
is the hiding place where Ali Baba and his band of thieves have stored
their treasures,in which case that magic word known to every school
child who ever delighted over the tales of the Arabian Nightsshould be
enough to push the stone aside. But take care—the cliff is steep, and
one slip will send you tumbling down into the ravine below. [5]This is
the one and only time that the second stroke in cliff will reach over
to the middle of the horizontal stroke.If you think ofthe edge jutting
outwards (in keeping with the story above),the problem should be taken
care of.�щ �ъ �ю �ё �џ* The stone is a quite common primitive element, which
is not restricted to great boulders but used of stones or rocks of any
size or shape.114resemblance肖The word resemblance should suggest, among
other things, a son’s resemblance to his father.A “chip off the old
block” is the way we often put it, but the character is more simple. It
speaks of a little bit of flesh. [7]�Ѱ �Ѷ* When used as a primitive,the
sense of resemblance is replaced by that of spark or candle. (If you
want an explanation: the kanji for moon also carries a secondary sense
of fire, which we omitted because we are keeping that meaning for other
primitives.)115nitrate��The word nitrate should immediately suggest a
beaker of nitric acid, which, as every high-school chemistry student
knows,
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lesson 7| 59can eat its way through some pretty tough substances. Here
we imagine pouring it over a rock and watching the sparks fly as it
bores a hole through the rock. [12]�Ҁ �ҏ116smash���We begin with the two
elements on the right, baseball and nee-dle. Since they will be coming
together from time to time,let us give the two of them the sense of a
game of cricket in which a needle is laid across the wicket. Then
imagine using a rock for a ball.A smash hit would probably splinter the
bat in all direc-tions, and a smashing pitch would do the same with the
needlewicket. [9]�Ҥ �Ҩ �ҫ117sand���Good sand for beaches has few or no
stones in it. That means that all of us whose feet have been spoiled by
too much time in shoes don’t have to watch our step as we cavort about.
[9]�Ҹ �Ӂ118plane�ɊLong before the invention of the carpenter’s plane,
people used knives and machetes (or here, sabers) to smooth out their
woodwork. If you have ever seen the process, you will have been amazed
at the speed and agility with which the adept can plane a hunk of wood
into shape. Indeed, you can almost see the sparks fly from their
sabers. [9]�ӡ �ӥ119ray�ʼnThere are really only 2 primitives here, little
and human legs.The 4th stroke that separates them is added for reasons
of aes-
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60 | remembering the kanji 1thetics.(If that doesn’t make sense,try
writing the kanji without it and see how ugly the results look, even to
your beginner’s eye.)Now if you have wondered what those little
particles of “dust”are that dance around in the light-rays that come
through the window and fall on your desk, try imagining them as little
and disembodied human legs, and you should have no trouble with this
character. [6]�Ӧ �Ө �ө �ӭ �Ӯ �Ӳ120plump��“Plump” is one of those delightful
English words that almost sound like their meaning. No sooner do you
hear it than you think of a round and ample-bodied person falling into
a sofa like a large drop of oil plopping into a fishbowl—kerrrr-plump!
[4]�Ӻ �ӽ �ӿ �Ԅ121utensil�٨The picture in this kanji is not a pleasant one.
It shows a large and fluffy St. Bernard dog stretched out on a table
all stuffed and stewed and garnished with vegetables,its paws in the
air and an apple in its mouth.At each corner of the table sits an eager
but empty mouth, waiting for the utensils to arrive so the feast can
begin. [15]�ԏ �ԕ �Ԯ �ԯ �Ա �Թ �Մ122stinking臭This character is a bit friendlier
to the animal world than the last one. Our friend the St. Bernard is
alive and well, its nosein the air sniffing suspiciously after
something stinking some-where or other. [9]�Ֆ �՝
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lesson 7| 61123exquisite��The primitive for woman is on the left (there
and at the bottom of another primitive is where you will always find
her), and to the right the element for few. When we refer to a woman as
exquisite, we mean to praise her as the sort of person we meet but few
and far between.If you are interested in etymologies,it might help to
recall that the Latin phrase lying at the root of the English word
exquisite carries this same sense of “seeking out” the rare from the
ordi-nary. [7]�ռ �ք124focus�܁When we think of focusing on something, we
usually take it in a metaphorical sense, though the literal sense is
not far behind.It means to block out what is nonessential in order to
fix our eyeon a few important matters.The kanji suggests picking up a
fewthings and holding them before one’s eye in order to focus on them
better. [9]�֊ �֜125thick�ΚWhen we refer to someone as thick-skinned or
thick-headed,we are usually quick to add—even if only under our
breath—something about their upbringing. Perhaps it is because deep
down we cherish the belief that by nature people are basically tender
and sensitive.Be that as it may, the Japanese character for thick
depicts a child abandoned out on the wild cliffs,exposed to the heat of
the sun,and thus doomed to develop a head and skin as thick as the
parent who left it there. [9]�֝ �֞ �֩ �֬
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62 | remembering the kanji 1126strange��The elements we are given to
work with here are St. Bernard dogand can. Lots of phrases pop to mind
to attach these words to the keyword, but they end up too abstract
because of the word can.It is important in such cases (and there will
be plenty ofthem as we go along) to stick closely to the elements, in
this case, mouth and nails. Now all we need do is create a fictitious
“Strange But True” column in the Sunday funnies, featuring a St.
Bernard whose mouth has been nailed shut because he was hitting the
brandy keg around his neck too hard. [8]�ֶ �ךLesson 8Four basic elements,
it was once believed, make up the things of our uni-verse: earth, wind,
fire, and water.We have already met the element for wind,and now we
shall introduce the others, one by one, in a somewhat longer than usual
lesson.Fortunately for our imaginative memories, these suggestive and
concrete primitives play a large role in the construction of the kanji,
and will help us create some vivid pictures to untangle some of the
complex jumbles of strokes that follow.127stream���We have taken the
image of a river stream over into English to describe things that fall
down in straight lines, or ripple along in lines.All of this is more
than evident in the kanji given here,a pictograph of a stream. [3]�ל �ן �ף
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lesson 8| 63* As a primitive, this character adds to the meaning of
streamthe more vivid image of a flood. Note, however, that there are
certain small changes in the writing of the element, depend-ing on
where it appears relative to other elements:on the left,it is written
���on the top,it is written ���on the bottom,it is written 職128state���Here
we see drops of land (little islets) rising up out of a stream,creating
a kind of sandbar or breakwater. Ever wonder how the state-line is
drawn between states separated by a river? If there were little drops
of land as in the kanji, there’d be nothing to it.[6]�פ � � � �
�؆129obey���In primitive language, this character would read stream . .
.head.And that turns out to be convenient for remembering its meaning
of obey.Either one obeys the person who is head of an organization or
else obeys by following the stream of opinion (“current” practice, we
call it). Both these senses come together in this kanji. [12].�ظ �ق �ٌ
�ٴ130water水This character, which looks a bit like a snowflake, is
actually a pictograph of water—not any particular body of water or
movement of water, but simply the generic name for water.Should you
have any difficulty remembering it, simply think ofa walking stick
being dropped vertically into the water, sending droplets out in all
four directions. Then all you need to learn is how to write it in
proper order. [4]�ٸ �ٺ �ڀ �چ
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64 | remembering the kanji 1* As a primitive, this character can keep
its form, or it can be written with three drops to the left of another
primitive, like this:氵. This latter,as we will see,is far more
common.131icicle氷The appearance of the primitive for water in its full
form tells us that we have something to do with water here.The extra
dropto the left, added as a second stroke, changes the picture from a
splash caused by a walking stick dropped into water to form an
icicle.If it helps, when you hold an icicle up to the light, you can
usually see little crystallizations of five-pointed stars inside ofit,
which is the shape we have in this kanji. [5]�ڇ �ڊ �ڏ �ڔ �ڠ132eternity永This
kanji also uses the full form of water, though its meaning seems to
have nothing at all to do with water. Remember what William Blake said
about seeing “infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour”?
Well, reading this character from top to bottom, we see “eternity in a
drop of water.”[5]�ڢ �ڥ �ڮ �ڴ �ڶ133spring泉Call to mind the image of a fresh,
bubbling spring of water,and you will probably notice how the top of
the spring you are thinking of, the part where the “bubbling” goes on,
is all white.Happily, the white is just where it should be, at the top,
and the water is at the bottom. [9]�ۃ �ۈ �ێ �ۑ �ۓ* We will keep this image
of a spring when using this kanji as a primitive, but not without first
drawing attention to a slight change that distinguishes the primitive
from the kanji. The final 4 strokes (the element for water) are
abbreviated to the
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lesson 8| 65three small drops that we learned earlier as the kanji for
little,giving us:聽.134meadow�ΟThough the kanji is broad enough to
embrace both meanings,the meadow you should imagine here is not a
flatland plain but a mountain meadow in the Austrian Alps. (Perhaps the
open-ing scene of “The Sound of Music” will help.) Simply think
oflittle springs bubbling up across the meadow to form a sort ofpath
that leads you right to the brink of a precipitous cliff. Now if you
can see Schwester Maria skipping along merrily,dodging in and out of
the springs, and then falling headlong over the cliff, you have a
ridiculous story that should help fix this kanji in memory. [10]�ۘ �ۣ
�۱135petition��A meadow and a head are all we are given to work with in
the kanji for petition. Since the key word already suggests some-thing
like a formal request made of some higher power, let us imagine a
gigantic Wizard-of-Oz head located in the middle ofthe flowery meadow
we used in the last frame.Then just picture people kneeling hopefully
before it, petitioning for whatever it is they want. (The scarecrow
wanted brains, the lion, courage,and the tin man a heart.What about
you?) [19]�܉ �ܟ136swim泳The primitive to the left, you will recall from
frame 130, repre-sents water. To the right, we see the kanji for
eternity. Knowing how much children like swimming, what could be a
better image of eternal bliss than an endless expanse of water to swim
in without a care in the world? [8]�ܨ �ܻ
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66 | remembering the kanji 1137marsh沼Unlike the meadow with its cliffs,
the marshlands are low and near a source of water that feeds them until
they get soggy through and through. Why certain land becomes marshy is
probably due to the fact that it felt thirsty, and so tried its best to
seduce the water over to its side. But, like most inordinate
seductions, the last state of the victim is worse than the first.Hence
the slushy marsh. [8]�݇ �ݑ138open sea沖This kanji could hardly be
simpler.The key word open sea read-ily suggests being out in the middle
of a great body of water.Thinking of it in this way should avoid
confusion with the kanji for “open,”which we will meet later on. [7]�ݤ
�ݪ139creek江Unlike the river, the ocean, the lake, and the pond, the
creek is often no more then a dribble of water trickling down a small
gully.While the geological history of the larger bodies of wateris hard
to surmise sometimes, all of us know from our child-hood how creeks are
made.You probably even dug one or two in your time. All you need to do
is find a mainstream of watersomewhere and dig a little path into dry
land. The creek is thus a lesson in water-craft, as this kanji would
agree. [6]�ވ �ޓ140soup汁To make soup, one begins with water and then
starts adding things to it,often leftovers from the icebox.This is how
the thick soup or stew called “seven-in-one” is made. This kanji does
it three better, giving us a ten-ingredient soup. [5]
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lesson 8| 67�ޣ �ު141tide潮Before we get to explaining this character, take
a look at it and see if you can figure out the primitive elements on
your own….On the left is the water—that much is easy.On the right we
have only one primitive,the kanji for morning learned back in frame52.
See how an apparently complex kanji falls apart neatly into manageable
pieces?To get the meaning of the key word tide, just think of it in
connection with the character for eventide that we learned back in
frame 110. Here we have the morning-tide, its complement.By the way, if
you missed the question about the number of primitives, it is probably
because you forgot what we said earlier about kanji becoming
primitives, independently of the pieces that make them up. As a rule,
look for the largest kanji you can write and proceed from there to
primitives stranded on their own. [15]� �ߜ142source源With the advice of
the last frame in mind,it is easy to see waterand meadow in this
character for source. Both in its etymology (it has a common parent
with the word “surge”) and in popular usage,source suggests the place
water comes from.In this kanji,it is under the meadow, where we just
saw it breaking the sur-face in those bubbly little springs. [13]�ߣ
���143lively活When we speak of a lively personality or a lively party, we
immediately think of a lot of chatter.This kanji depicts the idea of
lively by having tongues babble and splash around like flow-ing water.
[9]
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68 | remembering the kanji 1��� ��144extinguish消Among the many things
water is useful for is extinguishing fires, and that is just what we
have here. First of all, take the water at the left as the drops of
water that are used to depict water in general.In the best of all
possible worlds,the most effi-cient way to extinguish a fire would be
to see that each drop ofwater hits one spark of the conflagration.An
unthinkable bit ofutopian fire fighting, you say to yourself, but
helpful for assign-ing this key word its primitives. [10]�� ��145but of
course況This key word is a connector used to link contrasting phrases
and sentences together with much the same flavor as the English phrase
but of course. Just picture yourself ready to go off on your first date
as a teenager, and having your mother grill you about your manners and
ask you embarrassing questions about your hygiene.“Did you have a good
shower?”“But of course…,”you reply, annoyed. So water and teenager
combine to give us but of course. [8]�� ��146river河The character in this
frame represents a step up from the streamwe met in frame 127; it is a
full-sized river.The water to the left tells us what we are dealing
with, and the can at the right tells us that our “little engine that
could” has now become amphibi-ous and is chugging down the Mighty
Mississip’ like a regular riverboat. [8]�� ��
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lesson 8| 69147overnight泊When you stop at an inn for an overnight
rest,all you expect is a bit of water for a wash and a set of clean
white sheets to wrap your weary bones in. [8]�� ��148lake湖Water ...old
...flesh.You have heard of legends of people being abandoned in the
mountains when they had become too old to work.Well, here is a legend
about people being set adrift in the waters of a stormy lake because
their flesh had gotten too old to bear the burdens of life. [12]�� ��
��149fathom測Connoting the measurement of the depth of water, the key
word fathom begins with the water primitive. To its right, we see the
compound-primitive for rule (frame 88) which we learned in the sense of
a “ruler” or “measure.” Hence, when we rule water we fathom it.What
could be simpler? But be careful;its simplicity is deceptive.Be sure to
picture yourself fathoming a body of water several hundred feet deep by
using a ruler ofgargantuan proportions. [12]�� ��150soil�ܟI don’t like it
any more than you do, but this kanji is not the pictograph it is
trumped up to be: a mound of soil piled on the ground. All I can
recommend is that you memorize it as it is.Anyway,it will be occurring
with such frequency that you have almost no chance of forgetting it,
even if you try. [3]�� �� ��
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70 | remembering the kanji 1* As a primitive, the sense of soil is
extended to that of groundbecause of its connection with the kanji for
the same (frame515). From there it also takes the added meanings of
dirt and land.151spit�АWe have here a rather small mouth (it is always
compressed when set on the left) next to a much larger piece of dirt.It
is not hard to imagine what you might do if you got a mouth full
ofdirt.As least I know what I would do: spit it out as fast and far as
I could! [6]�� ��152pressure�ܧOne of the things that causes the erosion of
soil is the excessive pressure of the topsoil on the lower soil. This
can be caused by any number of things from heavy rainfall to heavy
buildings to the absence of sufficient deep-rooted vegetation to hold
the lay-ers together.Here we see a steep cliff without a tree in
sight.The slightest pressure on it will cause a landslide,which,with a
little help from your imagination, you will be able to see happening in
this character. [5]�� ��153cape�The cape pictured here is a jut of land
like Cape Cod. The soilon the left tells us we have to do with land,
and the strange on the right tells us it is a cape where unusual things
go on. Put a haunted house on it,an eerie sky overhead,and a howling
wind rustling through the trees, and you have yourself a picture ofCape
Strange (or, if you prefer, Cape Odd). [11]�� ��
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lesson 8| 71154hedge�ޣThe hedge depicted in this frame is not your
ordinary run-of-the-suburbs shrubbery,but the miraculous hedge of briar
roses that completely spanned the castle grounds in which Sleeping
Beauty lay for a hundred years,so that none but her predestined beloved
could find his way through it. [9]�� ��155squared jewel�ܭNow I am going to
do something unusual.The character in this frame is going to get one
meaning and the primitive another,with no relation at all between the
two. In time, I hope you will see how helpful this is.The kanji key
word, squared jewel, depicts a mammoth pre-cious stone, several feet
high, made by piling up large heaps ofsoil on top of one another. Not
something you would want to present your betrothed on your wedding day,
but a good image for remembering this rare character, used chiefly in
personal names nowadays. [6]�� �� �� �� �� ��* As a primitive, we shall use
this character to mean ivy, that creepy vegetation that covers the
surface of the ground to form a sort of “second” ground that can get
somewhat tricky to walk on without tripping.156seal���Think of the key
word seal as referring to a letter you have writ-ten and are preparing
to close. Instead of using the traditional wax seal, you glue a sprig
of ivy on the outside. In this way the elements ivy and glue give you a
curious and memorable way to seal your secret letters. [9]�� ��
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72 | remembering the kanji 1157horizon涯After seeing a constant horizon
of water, water everywhere for months at sea, could there be anything
more delightful to the eyes than to look astern and see the ivy-clad
cliffs of land on a new horizon? Of course, you’d need the eyes of a
stellar tele-scope to recognize that the vegetation was in fact ivy,
but the phrase “ivy-clad cliffs” has such a nice ring to it that we
won’t worry about such details. [11]�� �� ��158Buddhist temple��You have
heard of people “attaching”themselves to a particular sect? Here is
your chance to take that metaphor literally and imagine some fellow
walking into a Buddhist temple with a fervent resolve to attach himself
to the place. Since there is plenty of unused land around the
precincts,he simply picks out a suitable patch, brushes the soles of
his feet with glue, steps down firmly,and so joins the Buddhist temple
as a “permanent member.”[6]�� ��159time時“What is time?” asked St.
Augustine in his memoirs.“Ask me not, and I know. Ask me, and I cannot
tell you.” Here we have the kanji’s answer to that perennial riddle.
Time is a sun ris-ing over a Buddhist temple. It sounds almost like a
Zen kōan whose repetition might yield some deep secret to the
initiated.At any rate, imagining a monk seated in meditation pondering
it might help us remember the character. [10]�� ��160level�݇The level this
key word refers to is not the carpenter’s tool but rather the even
surface of a thing.It pictures soil being scooped
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lesson 8| 73up into a ladle and then made level (apparently because one
is measuring soil). The excess drops of soil are brushed off the
top,which accounts for the added drop at the ladle’s edge. [7]�� ��
��161fire���Just as sitting before a fire enlivens the imagination and
lets you see almost anything you want to in the flames, this kanji is
so simple it lets you see almost any sort of fire you want to see.It no
longer makes a good pictograph, but I invite you to take a pencil and
paper and play with the form—first writing it as shown below and then
adding lines here and there—to see what you can come up with.
Everything from matchbooks to ciga-rette lighters to volcanic eruptions
to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found here. No doubt
you, too, will find something interesting to bend your memory around
these four simple strokes. [4]�� �� �� ��* To avoid confusion later on, it
is best to keep to the meaning of a fireplace (or hearth) or a raging
conflagration like a forest fire for this kanji’s primitive
meaning.Another primitive ele-ment for fire, based on this one, is
written���and will mean flames, cauldron, cooking fire, or an oven
fire.162inflammation�ŽA fire belongs in the hearth, not over it.When the
fire spreads to the rest of the house, we have an inflamed house. And
as with any inflammation—including those that attack our bod-ies—the
danger is always that it might spread if not checked.This is the sense
behind the reduplication of the element for fire, one atop the other
[8]�� �� �� ���� �� �� �� ��
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74 | remembering the kanji 1163anxiety�ũThe existential condition of
anxiety that arises from the inevi-table frustration of our worldly
passions is contained in this character. The head is set afire, causing
deep torment of spirit (and a whopper of a headache). [13]�� �� �� ��
��164thin淡The primitives in this kanji read: water
...inflammation.Taking inflammation in its medical sense,the first
water-related inflam-mation that pops into mind is dehydration,the
principal symp-tom of which is that it makes one shrivel up and look
very,very thin. If that is hard to remember, try thinking it backwards:
a very thin chap passes by and you imagine him suffering from (being
inflamed with) dehydration (hence the element for water). [11]��
��165lamp���Since it is very hard to read by the fireplace without going
blind from the flickering of the flames or burning up from the heat,our
ancestors invented a way to nail down a bit of that fire, just enough
to light up the text of their evening newspapers and no more.Voilà! The
lamp. [6]�� ��166farm�ՑLooking at the primitives,a fireplace and a rice
field,we find the essential ingredients for a farm:a warm hearth to sit
by at night,and a well-plowed field to grow one’s crops in by day. [9]��
��
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lesson 8| 75167disaster���Of all of nature’s disasters,this kanji picks
out two of the worst:floods and fires. To recall the disposition of the
elements, think of nature’s solution to nature’s own problem: a great
flood pour-ing down over a great forest fire. [7]�� �� �� ��168ashes���The
kanji for ashes naturally includes the primitive for fire, or more
specifically, a fireplace. Now what do you do with that bucket of ashes
you have just cleaned out of the fireplace? You walk to the edge of a
cliff and tip it upside down, watching as they are swept away in the
wind like a swarm of gray mosqui-toes. Thus the fire, once it has
turned to ashes, ends up at the bottom of the cliff. [6]�� ��169spot�¹If
you look into the flickering of a fire for a long time and then turn
aside,you will see spots before your eyes.Although nobody ever thought
of such a thing before—as least as far as I know,they didn’t—imagine
using those spots as a technique for for-tune-telling. The old witch
sits before her cauldron and watches the spots that show up when she
turns to look at you,and from that tells your fortune. Think of it as a
kind of spot-check on your future. [9]�� �� �� �� ��170illuminate�ŧAlthough
the range of possible meanings that the kanji for illuminate can have
is about as rich as the connotations of the English word, we need to
focus on just one of them: to make something shine. If you glaze a pot
and put it into the oven to fire it, you in fact illuminate it. Hence
the kanji for illuminate
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76 | remembering the kanji 1compares the kanji for shining with the
primitive element for the oven’s fire. [13]�� �� ��171fish��The composition
of this kanji shows three elements, which we list in the order of their
writing:bound up ...rice field ...cookingfire. Not much to work with at
first sight. But we can join them together by thinking of a three-part
story: first a fish is caught and bound up on a line with its
unfortunate school-mates;when the fisherman gets home,he cuts off the
head and tosses it,with the entrails, out into the rice fields for
fertilizer; and the rest he sets in a skillet over a cooking fire for
his supper. [11]料 斤 斬172fishing漁To the story we have just made about
fish,this kanji for the pro-fession of fishing adds yet another element
before the others:namely the water, where the fish was happily at home
before being caught, disemboweled, and eaten. Be sure to get a clear
image of the water when you put it all together. [14]新 旌Lesson
9Although the study of the four basic elements undertaken in the last
les-son brought us a lot of new characters—46 in all—we have only
scratched the surface as far as water, earth, wind, and fire are
concerned. Perhaps by now it is clear why I said at the beginning of
this lesson that we are lucky that they appear so frequently.The range
of images they suggest is almost endless.In this chapter our focus will
be on a few new “roof”and “enclosure”primi-
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lesson 9| 77tives. But first, a primitive-kanji that we might have
included in the last group but omitted so as not to be distracted from
the four elements.With just that one element we can pick up no less
than 7 new kanji with no trouble at all.173ri�njThat’s right—a ri. Don’t
bother looking it up in your English dictionary; it’s a Japanese word
for measuring distances. One ri is about 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles. The
kanji depicts how the measure came to be used.Atop we see the rice
field, and below the element for land. Those four sections you see in
the ricefield (and which we made mention of when first we introduced
the character in frame 14) are actually measurements of land,much the
same as farm-sections in the United States have given us the notion of
a “country mile.”The land division based on the size of a rice field is
called a ri. [7]�� �� �� �� �� �� ��* To get a more concrete primitive meaning
for this kanji, we shall refer to it as a computer, a meaning deriving
from the kanji for logic, which we will meet in Lesson 12.174black��Like
most things electrical, a computer, too, can overheat. Just imagine
flames pouring out of it and charring the keyboard,the monitor, and
your desk a sooty black color. [11]�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ���� ��175black
ink��Besides meaning black ink, this kanji also appears in the word for
an inked string that is pulled taut and snapped to mark a surface, much
the same as one might used a chalked string.Here it is used to mark off
the dirt with black lines for a football game (played, I presume, on a
white field). [14]
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78 | remembering the kanji 1�� ��176carp��These are the same carp you see
in Japanese “carp streamers.”Only here we find a small home computer or
two strung on the line by a father anxious for his son not only to have
the courage and determination of a carp swimming upstream, but also the
efficiency and memory of a computer. Ugh. [18]�� ��177quantity�ǏThink of
quantity as having to do with measuring time and dis-tance, and the
rest is simple: you have a quantity of time in the new day that begins
with nightbreak, and a quantity of distance in the rural ri. [12]�� ��
��178rin�ΘNo doubt you will find it in your heart to forgive me for
forcing yet another Japanese word on you in this frame.It is not the
last time it will happen in this book, but I can assure you they are
used only when absolutely necessary.One rin is equal to about 1/1000 of
a yen—or rather was worth that much when it still made economic sense
to mint them.While inflation took its toll on this kanji as a monetary
unit, it survived with the not at all surprising sense of something
“very,very tiny.”The kanji shows a cliff with a computer under it,
apparently because it has been pushed over into the abyss by someone
fed up with the thing.The total market value of one home computerthat
has fallen over rock and bramble for several hundred feet:about one
rin! [9]�� ��
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lesson 9| 79179bury�ߋWhen we speak of burying something (or someone, for
that matter), we usually mean putting them under ground. Only here, we
are burying our beloved computer that has served us so well these past
years. Behind us a choir chants the “Dies irae, dies illa” and there is
much wailing and grief among the bystanders as they pass by to shovel a
little dirt into what will be its final resting place. R.I.P. [10]��
��Before going any further,we might pause a moment to look at precisely
where the primitive elements were placed in the kanji of the last
frame: the groundto the left and the computer to the right. Neither of
these is an absolutely fixed position. The kanji for spit (frame 151),
for instance, puts ground on the right,and that for plains (frame 1596)
will put the computer on the left.While there is no reason to bother
memorizing any “rules,”a quick glance through a few gen-eral guidelines
may help. Use them if they help; if not, simply adjust the story for a
problem character in such a way as to help you remember the position
ofthe elements relative to one another.In any case, here are the
guidelines that follow from the kanji treated up to this point:1. Many
kanji used regularly as primitives have a “strong” position or two from
which they are able to give a basic “flavor” to the character. For
ex-ample, ground at the left (or bottom) usually indicates something to
do with earth,soil,land,and the like; fire at the bottom in the form of
the four dots, or at the left in its compressed kanji form, usually
tells us we have to do with heat, passion, and the like; a mouth at the
left commonly signifies something to do with eating, coughing,
spitting, snoring, screaming, and so forth.Where these elements appear
elsewhere in the kanji, they do not have the same overall impact on its
meaning as a rule.2. Some primitive elements always have the same
position in a kanji. We saw this earlier in the case of the primitive
meaning head (frame 60) and that for the long saber (frame 83), as well
as in the three drops of water(frame 130).3. Enclosures like cliff (see
frame 125) and bound up (frame 63) are always set above whatever it is
they enclose. Others, as we shall see later,“wrap up”a kanji from the
bottom.
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80 | remembering the kanji 14.All things being equal, the element with
the fewer strokes (usually the more common element) has first rights to
the “strong” position at the leftor bottom. (Note that the left and
bottom cannot both be the dominant position in the same
character.Either one or the other of them will domi-nate, usually the
left.) The characters for nitrate (frame 115) and chant(frame 21)
illustrate the point.*hood�ƂIn addition to the basic meaning of hood,
this shape can be used for a glass canopy, such as that used to serve
“pheasant under glass.” Note its difference from the element for wind:
the second stroke is hooked inwards here. To help remember this detail,
think of the wind as blowing “out”and a glass canopy as keeping
something “in.”Among the related images suggested by this primitive
are: a monk’s cowl, a riding hood, a helmet, and an automobile hood.
[2]�� ��180same�ЌThe primitives given are one and mouth under a hood. Take
the key word to connote the sameness that characterizes the life in a
community of monks. They all have the same habits, includ-ing the
“habit”they wear on their backs.Here we see the monk’s cowl, drawn down
over the eyes so that all you can see when you look at him is a mouth.
But since monks also speak their prayers in common, it is but a short
step to think of one mouthunder a hood as the kanji for the sameness of
monastic life. [6]�� �� ��* As a primitive, this kanji will mean monks
dressed in a com-mon habit.181den洞The key word den refers to an animal
lair hollowed out in the side of a mountain. Now if we keep to the
image of the monas-
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lesson 9| 81tic life as an image for same,we can picture a den of wild
beasts dressed up in habits and living the common life in a mountain
cavern.To bring in the element of water we need only give them a sacred
“puddle”in the center of their den,the focus of all their pious
attentions. [9]��� ���182trunk胴The word trunk refers to the part of the
body that is left when you have “truncated” all the limbs. I can hardly
think of any reason for doing so, unless one were lumberjacking corpses
and needed to have them all properly pruned and made the same so they
could be floated downstream without causing a body-jam. [10]���
��183yonder�БSomething referred to as “over yonder” is usually far off in
the distance and barely within sight—like a wee drop in the
dis-tance—and is usually an expression used in giving directions or
pointing something out.Hence this kanji begins with a drop.Then we find
a sort of transparent helmet with no eyes or nose,but only a prominent
mouth under it, obviously an extraterres-trial.And what is it jabbering
on about with its mouth open like that? Why, about his spaceship way
over yonder with its fuel tank on empty. [6]�� �� ��184esteem��Above we see
the primitive for little attached to one of those glass canopies you
might use to display a family heirloom. The littleness is important,
because what is in fact on display is the shrunken, stuffed, and
mounted mouth of an esteemed ances-tor.We may be used to esteeming the
words our forebears leave behind, but here we also esteem the very
mouth that spoke
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82 | remembering the kanji 1them. I leave it to you to imagine a
suitable place in your room for displaying such an unusual conversation
piece. [8]�� �� ��*house��This extremely useful primitive element depicts
the roof of a house. You can see the chimney at the top and the eaves
on either side without much trouble.It is a “crown”element,which means
that it is invariably set atop other things. Examples fol-low
immediately. [3]�� �� ��185character��Here is the character for character
itself. Not just kanji, but any written character from hieroglyphs to
Sanskrit to our own Roman alphabet.It shows us simply a child in a
house.But let us take advantage of the double meaning of the key word
to note that just as a child born to a Japanese house is given
characters for its name, so it is also stamped with the character of
those who raise it from infancy on. [6]�� �� �� �� �� ��186guard��The notion
of guarding something easily brings to mind the image of someone
standing guard, like the royal soldiers in front of Buckingham Palace
or the Pope’s Swiss Guard. The whole idea of hiring guards is that they
should stick like glue to your house to protect it from unwanted
prowlers. So go ahead and glue a guard to your house in imagination.
[6]�� ��
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lesson 9| 83187perfect��In order not to confuse the key word perfect
with others nearly synonymous in meaning, pull it apart to have a look
at its native Latin roots. Per-factum suggests something so
“thor-oughly made or done” that nothing more needs to be added to it.
Now look at the kanji, which does something similar.We see a house that
has been made perfectly from its beginnings in the foundation to the
roof on the top. Now return to frame 97 and make sure not to confuse
this key word with the kanji for complete. [7]�� ��188proclaim��Under the
primitive for house we meet the kanji for span. Think of the key word
in its religious sense of missionary preach-ing: “proclaiming the good
news to all nations” and “shout-ing it from the housetops.” That should
be enough to help you remember this simple kanji, used in fact both for
traditional missionary work as well as for one of its contemporary
replace-ments: advertising. [9]�� ��189wee hours��As the key word hints,
the kanji in this frame refers to the late evening or early morning
hours, well after one should be in bed asleep. It does this by
picturing a house with a candle in it.The reason is obvious: whoever is
living there is “burning the candle at both ends,”and working night
after night into the wee hours. [10]�� ��190relax��To be told that the
place of the woman is in the house may not sit well with modern
thought, but like all cultural habits the
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84 | remembering the kanji 1Chinese characters bear the birthmarks of
their age.So indulge yourself in a Norman Rockwell image of relaxing
after a hard day’s work: the scruffy and weary woman of the house
slouched asleep in the living room chair, her hair in curlers and a
duster lying in her lap. [6]�� ��191banquet��To carry on from the last
frame, we note the entire day of work that comes between a woman and
her house in preparing for a dinner banquet, pictorially
“interrupting”her relaxation. [10]�� �� ��192draw near��Let the idea of
drawing near suggest something dangerous or eerie that one approaches
with fear and trembling. Here we see a strange house—perhaps the
haunted House of Usher that Edgar Allen Poe immortalized, or the
enchanted Gingerbread House that lured Hansel and Gretel to draw near.
[11]�� ���193wealth��Here we have the original character on which the
primitive ele-ment for wealth is based. In keeping with the story
introduced back then, note how all the wealth is kept under the roof of
the same house. [12]��� ���194savings貯To avoid confusing this frame with
the last one, try to think of savings as actual money. The only
difference is that our currency is not paper bills but shells, a not
uncommon unit of exchange in older civilizations. The nail under the
roof of
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lesson 10| 85the house points to a hiding place in the rafters on which
one strings up one’s shells for safekeeping. [12]��� ��� ���Lesson 10Of the
several primitive elements that have to do with plants and grasses,we
introduce two of the most common in this lesson: trees and flowers.In
most cases, as we shall see, their presence in a “strong” position (in
this case, to the left and at the top, respectively) helps give a
meaning to the kanji.Where this is not the case,we shall do our best to
make it so.195tree木Here we see a pictograph of a tree, showing the main
trunk in the long vertical stroke and the boughs in the long horizontal
stroke. The final two strokes sweep down in both directions to indicate
the roots.Although it may look similar at first sight to the kanji for
water (frame 130), the order in which it is written is completely
different and this affects its final appearance. [4]��� ��� ��� ���* As a
primitive,this kanji can mean tree or wood.When the last two strokes
are detached from the trunk (膈), we shall change its meaning to pole,or
wooden pole.196grove林Learn this frame in connection with the next one.
A grove is a small cluster of trees. Hence the simple reduplication of
the kanji for tree gives us the grove. [8]��� ��� ��� ��� ���
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86 | remembering the kanji 1197forest森A forest is a large expanse of
trees,or “trees,trees everywhere,”to adopt the expression we used back
in frames 22 and 23. [12]��� ��� ���198JapaneseJudas-tree桂Unless you are a
botanist, you are not likely to know what a Japanese Judas-tree looks
like, and probably never even heard of it before, but the name is
sufficiently odd to make remem-bering it easy. Using the primitives as
our guide, we define it as a tree with ivy growing down its branches in
the shape of a hangman’s rope. [10]��� ���199oak柏This kanji calls to mind
the famous myth of the “golden bough.”As you may recall, what made the
sacred oak in the forest ofDiana the Huntress outside of Rome “golden”
were the whiteberries of the mistletoe that grew in the branches of the
tree.When the light of the sun shone through them,they turned yel-low
and the branch to which they clung appeared to be made ofgold. (If you
don’t know the story, take a break today and hunt it down in a
dictionary of myth and fable.Even if you forget the kanji—which, of
course, you won’t—the story of the mistletoe and the fate it brought to
Balder the Beautiful is one you are sure to remember.) [9]���
��200frame枠You might think of the frame this character refers to as the
sort of frame we have created by drawing a dark line around this kanji
and its explanation. Then think of that line as made ofvery thin wood;
and finally note how each time the line bends it forms a 90° angle,
thus giving us the nine and the ten. [8]
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lesson 10| 87�� �� ��201treetops梢As the days grow shorter and shorter, or
so the northern European myth goes, the fear grows that the sun will
take its leave of us altogether, abandoning the world to total
dark-ness. Fixing candles to the branches of evergreen trees, it was
believed, would lure the sun back (like things attracting like things),
whence the custom of the lighted tree that eventually found its way
into our Christmas customs. The story is a lot longer and more complex
than that, but it should help to fix the image of climbing high up into
the treetops to fix candleson the tree. [11]�� ��202shelf棚One often
thinks of books as “good companions,” but here it is the shelf we store
them on that is the companion. The rea-sons should be obvious: it is
made of the same stuff, wood, and spends a lot more time with them than
we do! Here again, be careful not to let the rationality of the
explanation get in the way before you turn it into a proper story.
[12]�� ��203apricot杏Since apricots can be eaten just as they fall from
the trees, pic-ture this mouth agape at the bottom of a tree (just as
the ele-ments have it), waiting for apricots to fall into it. [7]��
��204paulownia桐Since you probably don’t know what a paulownia tree is,
we shall let the key word suggest the phrase “the Little Brothers
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88 | remembering the kanji 1of St. Paulownia.” It is a short step to
associate the tree with the monks to its right. (For the curious, the
name of this oriental tree really comes from a Russian princess,Anna
Pavlovna.) [10]�� ��205plant植You have no doubt seen how people practicing
the Japanese art of bonsai take those helpless little saplings and
twist them into crippled dwarves before they have a chance to grow up
as they should. The more proper way to plant a young tree and give it a
fair shake in life is to set it into the earth in such a way that it
can grow up straight. [12]�� ��206wither枯What makes a tree begin to
wither up, and perhaps even die, is a kind of arteriosclerosis that
keeps its sap from flowing freely.Usually this is due to simple old
age, as this character shows us. Be sure to picture a wrinkled old
tree, withering away in a retirement center so that the commonsense
explanation does not take over. [9]�� ��207crude朴As all magicians who
have passed their apprenticeship know,one makes one’s wand out of a
hazel branch and is careful not to alter the natural form of the wood.
For the magic ofthe wand derives its power from its association with
the hid-den laws of nature, and needs therefore to be kept in its
crude,natural state. [6]�� ��
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lesson 10| 89208town村The character for village was associated with rice
fields (frame92). That for town, a step up on the evolutionary path to
cities,shows a circle of trees glued together to measure off the
confines of a town. [7]�� ��209inter-�۸The prefix inter- stirs up
associations of cooperation among people. From there we read off the
elements: tree . . . eye. With only a slight leap of the imagination,
those two words call to mind the scriptural proverb about first taking
the block of tim-ber out of one’s own eye before helping your neighbors
remove the splinters in their eyes. What more useful rule for
inter-human relationships,and what more useful tool for remember-ing
this kanji! [9]�� ��210desk机We need to fix imagination here on two things
to learn the kanji for desk: the wonderful rough wood of which it has
been hewn and the wind that blows across it,sending your papers flying
all over the room.These two elements,written in that order,dictate how
to write the character. [6]�� ��211book本Recalling that books are made of
paper, and paper made oftrees, one might think of a book as a slice of
a tree. Can you see the “cross-cut”in the trunk of the tree? Picture it
as a chain-saw cutting you out a few books with which to start your own
pri-vate library. [5]�� ��
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90 | remembering the kanji 1212tag札The tags you see hanging on trees in
public places in Japan are helpful to identify what sort of trees they
are.Next time you see one, imagine the bit of wire that fixes the tag
to the branch as a large fishhook. really imagine it, illogical as it
is, and you will never have trouble with this kanji again. [5]��
��213calendar暦Look at this character in reverse order,from bottom
up.First we see the primitive for days,an appropriate enough way to
begin a calendar. Next we see a grove of trees growing under a cliff.
The laws of nature being what they are, the trees would be stunted
under such conditions,unless they were strong enough to keep growing
upwards until they passed through the layers of rock and soil,right up
to the surface.Now imagine that in those little boxes marking off the
days on your wall calendar, you see that very process taking place step
by step: 365 or so time-lapse pic-tures of that grove of trees each
month, from January under the cliff to December on top of the cliff.
The story is not as com-plex as it sounds, particularly if you happen
to have a calendarnearby and can flip through it with this image in
mind. [14]�� �� ��214plan案Without much effort, the elements relax . . .
tree suggest a ham-mock strung between two trees in your backyard, and
you stretched out in it, hands folded behind your head,
planningsomething or other.After all,it’s something we all do from time
to time: kick up our legs on the nearest piece of furniture and
daydream about the best plan of action to take.Be sure to relate the
relaxation to the tree, so that you don’t end up with some-thing else
in its place (like “legs”or “desk”or “table”). [10]�� ��
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lesson 10| 91215parch�ǥParchment, made from animal skins, was the most
common form of writing material used until the beginning of the
nine-teenth century. When paper took over, a method was devised to make
artificial parchment from wood pulp. The fire at the left and in the
“strong” position reminds us of the root word,“parch,” since nothing
dries, puckers, wrinkles, and scorches quite like fire. And here is how
we put it all together. Take a sheet of paper (a “wood-good,”), wet it,
and hold it over a hearth in your mind’s eye. Now watch as it parches
the paper,leaving it with a strange and bumpy surface resembling
parch-ment. [17]�� �� ��216notyet未As the key word suggests, this kanji has
to do with something not quite over and done with.More concretely,it
shows us a treethat is not yet fully grown. The extra short stroke in
the upper branches shows new branches spreading out, leaving one with
the feeling that the tree has a ways to go yet before it reaches
maturity. In other words, the kanji conveys its meaning
picto-graphically, playing on the earlier pictograph of the tree. [5]��
�� �� �� ��217extremity末This character is best learned in connection with
that of the previous frame. The first stroke shows a branch that is
longer than the main branch, indicating that the tree has reached the
extremity of its growth, so that its branches stop spreading and start
drooping downwards. Be sure to keep this imagery in mind,to avoid
confusing this key word with synonyms that will appear later. [5]�� �� ��
�� ��
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92 | remembering the kanji 1218splash沫The splash this kanji refers to
is the dash of water against the rocks, with all the foam and spray
that this creates. If you think of a splash in this sense as a wave
that has run its full course and reached its extremity, namely the
seashore, and if you think ofit pictorially in your mind’s eye,this
somewhat rare (but oh-so-easy-to-learn) kanji is yours for good. [8]��
���219flavor�ѳWhen a tree has not yet finished growing,it produces fruit
with a full flavor.When the official taster (the professional mouth to
the left) determines that full flavor has been reached, the tree is
pruned back so that it remains permanently not yet grown.A neat little
agricultural trick and an easy way to see the sense offlavor hidden in
this character. [8]��� ���220youngersister��The younger sister in the family
is the woman in the family who, like the newest branch in a tree, is
not yet old enough or mature enough to do everything the elder sister
can do (see frame 413). [8]��� ���221vermilion朱That red-orange color we
call vermilion is found in nature dur-ing the fall when the leaves lose
their sugar and begin to change color.This kanji depicts the very last
leaf on a tree in the fall (the drop hung in the first stroke), the
leaf that has not yet fallen as it one day must. Look at its
color—vermilion. (Well, not really.The truth is,vermilion is made from
a mercuric sulfide,but I’m sure you will agree that autumn leaves are a
lot easier to work with.) [6]
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lesson 10| 93��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ���222stocks株The stocks bought and sold on the
market by the tens of mil-lions each day get their name from a
comparison to a healthy tree,in which one takes “stock”in the hopes
that it will grow and produce more and more trees like itself. Usually
good stocksare referred to as “blue chip,” but here we are asked to
asso-ciate the key word with the color vermilion, perhaps because one
can assess the value of a tree from the color of its autumn leaves.
[10]��� ���*flower艹We are not yet equipped with all the pieces necessary to
learn the character for flower, so shall have to content ourselves here
with the first three strokes, which represent the primitive ofthe same
meaning. Concentrate on the actual “bloom” of the flower, and keep a
particular flower in mind. Try a rose, a tulip,or a daisy, since none
of them will have their own kanji. Think about it well, since once you
have decided on your flower ofchoice, you will be using it in a rather
large number of stories later on. [3]��� ��� ���223young若Here we see a flower
held in the right hand. You can imagine yourself in a magic garden
where flowers picked with the righthand grant eternal youth; and those
picked with the left, pre-mature senility. Go ahead, pick one with each
hand and watch what happens. [8]��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ���
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94 | remembering the kanji 1224grass草Perhaps you know the custom of
seeding grass randomly or in some particular pattern with the flower
called the crocus,which blooms for a few days each year in early
spring. As the grassbegins to turn green again after winter has passed,
these tiny flowers dot up here and there. Now just look out your window
at a patch of grass somewhere and think what a nice idea it would be to
have your name spelled out in flowers once as a sort of early harbinger
of spring. [9]��� 怒225suffering苦The picture of suffering we are given
here is that of a flower that has grown old. When a flower ages, it
pales and dries up, and probably even suffers. If you think that plants
are incapable ofsuch feelings,then ask yourself why so many people
believe that talking to their flowers helps them bloom better. [8]怙
怡226tolerant��The house of flowers or “hothouse” has become a metaphor
for a narrow-minded, biased, and intolerant attitude distrustful
ofchange. Tolerance, in contrast, is open-minded and welcomes novelty.
The way to encourage tolerance in those who lack it is first to have
them see through their own hothouse attitudes,which is the very counsel
we are given in this kanji. [13]性 怪 恃227dilute薄Take a good look at this
kanji: the “strong”element here is really the flower, not the water as
you might have thought on first glance. To the right is the
acupuncturist from frame 47. Taking the key word to connote diluting
the vital humors of the body,we can imagine our acupuncturist
performing his task with
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lesson 10| 95flowers in place of needles,and using their hollow stems
to pipe water into the body of the patient. [16]恒 恚 恪228leaf葉Three
elements are given here: flower . . . generation . . . tree. The first
and last seem logical enough, since it is the leaf that feeds the
flowers on a tree. The element for generation interposed between the
two suggests that the movement of a tree from one generation to the
next is like its “turning over a new leaf.”[12]恭 悁 悉*graveyard莫The
element shown here should be taken to represent a modern graveyard.
Gone are the cobwebs and gnarled trees, the tilted headstones and dark,
moonless nights that used to scare the wits out of our childhood
imaginations.Instead,we see brightly colored flowers placed before the
tombstones, the sun shining gloriously overhead, and a cuddly St.
Bernard sitting at the gate keeping watch. [10]悌 悖 悛229imitation模Ah,
but haven’t modern graveyards become a parody of their ancestors! The
flowers are plastic, the writing on the stones is unimaginative and
cold, and the whole thing looks more like a marble orchard than a right
and proper graveyard. This kanji continues with the modernization trend
by picturing imita-tion trees in the graveyard.But of course,how
convenient! They don’t need pruning or fertilizing,their leaves don’t
fall,and they remain the same color all year long. [14]悦 悼
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96 | remembering the kanji 1230vague漠Think of the key word as having to
do with something viewed through a haze, or in the twilight and from a
distance, so that only its outlines are vaguely discernible.Now we are
back again to the essence of the true graveyard. The water may be taken
as the sound of waves dashing up against the rocks or the drip-ping of
moisture on cold rock—anything that helps you associ-ate vagueness with
the graveyard and keep it distinct from the imitation we met in the
last frame. [13]惆 惠231grave��The mounds of soil with crude wooden
crosses set at their head suggests those boot-hill graves we all know
from cowboy lore.The only odd thing about this kanji is that the soil
comes under the graveyard,rather than to its left,where we might
expect.Just think of the bodies as “lying under boot-hill” if you have
any trouble.By the way, this is not the first time, nor will it be the
last,that we learn a kanji whose key word is the same, or almost the
same, as a primitive element based on it, but whose shape dif-fers
somewhat. There is no cause to worry. By using the primi-tive in a
variety of other characters, as we have done here, the confusion will
be averted as a matter of course. In most cases,as here, the primitive
element is taken from a part of the fuller kanji. [13]惶
惺232livelihood暮Imagine that you have chosen the occupation of the
keeper of a graveyard and spend your days tending to other’s deadhood
in order to make your means of livelihood. [14]意 愚 ��
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lesson 11| 97233membrane膜The part of the body first affected by a
stroll through a haunted graveyard is the skin, which gets goose bumps.
But we save the word “skin” for another kanji, and use the odd word
“mem-brane”here.Think of being so scared through and through that the
goose flesh moves from the outside in, giving you goose membranes.
[14]愧 慂234seedling苗To avoid confusion with the image of rice seedlings
to appear later, we shall take these seedlings out of their
agricultural set-ting in the rice fields and into the frame of Brave
New World surgery, where “ideas” or “values” are being implanted into
brains like seedlings to insure a harmonious society. Then you need
only imagine them taking root and breaking out into flower right
through the tops of the skulls of people walking around on the streets.
[8]慈 慎Lesson11Now that we have made our way through well over 200
characters, it is time to pause and consider how you are getting on
with the method introduced in this book.While this lesson will be a
short one (only 15 new kanji) you might want to spend some time
reviewing your progress in the light of the remarks that follow.In them
I have tried to draw out the main principles that have been woven into
the fabric of the text from frame to frame and lesson to lesson. I do
so by looking at some of the typical problems that can arise:If you can
remember the key word when you see the kanji, but have trouble
remembering the kanji when you have only the key word to go on…
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98 | remembering the kanji 1Probably you did not take seriously the
advice about studying these stories with a pad and pencil. If you try
to shortcut the process by merely learning to recognize the characters
for their meaning without worrying about their writ-ing, you will find
that you have missed one bird with two stones, when you could have
bagged two with one. Let me repeat: study only from key word to kanji;
the reverse will take care of itself.If you find yourself having to go
back to a kanji, once you have written it, to make corrections or
additions…My guess is that you are asking your visual memory to do the
work that belongs to imaginative memory.After Lesson 12,you will be
given more leeway to create your own images and stories,so it is
important that you nip this prob-lem in the bud before going any
further.A small step in the wrong direction on a journey of 2,000 kanji
will land you in deep trouble in no time. Here are the steps you should
be following each time you come to a new frame:1. Read the key word and
take note of the particular connotation that has been given it.There is
only one such meaning,sometimes associated with a colloquial phrase,
sometimes with one of the several meanings of the word,sometimes with a
well-known cultural phenomenon.Think of that connotation and repeat it
to yourself. When you’re sure you’ve got the right one, carry on.2.
Read through the particular little story that goes with the key word
and let the whole picture establish itself clearly.3. Now close your
eyes, focus on those images in the story that belong to the key word
and primitive elements, and let go of the controls. It may take a few
seconds, sometimes as long as a minute, but the picture will start to
change on its own. The exaggerated focal points will start to take on a
life of their own and enhance the image with your own particular
experiences and memories. You will know your work is done when you have
succeeded in creating a memorable image that is both succinct and
complete, both faithful to the original story and yet your very own.4.
Open your eyes and repeat the key word and primitive elements,keeping
that image in mind. This will clear away any of the fog, and at the
same time make sure that when you let go you didn’t let go of the
original story,too.5. In your mind, juxtapose the elements relative to
one another in line with your image or the way they normally appear in
the characters.6. Take pencil and paper and write the character once,
retelling the story as you go.
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lesson 11| 99These are basically the same steps you were led through in
reading the sto-ries, even though they were not laid out so clearly
before. If you think back to the kanji that “worked” best for you, you
will find that each of these steps was accomplished perfectly. And if
you look back at the ones you are forgetting,you should also be able to
locate which step you skipped over. In reviewing,these same steps
should be followed, with the only clue to set the imagination in motion
being the key word.If you find you are forgetting the relative position
of the elements in a kanji…Before all else,go back and reread the frame
for that character to see if there were any helpful hints or
explanatory notes. If not, return to the frame where the particular
primitives were first introduced to see if there is any clue there.And
if this is not the problem, then, taking care not to add any new words
or focal points to your story (since they might end up being elements
later on),rethink the story in such a way that the image for each
element actually takes the position it has in the kanji itself. This
should not happen often, but when it does,it is worth spending a few
minutes to get things sorted out.If you are confusing one kanji with
another…Take a careful look at the two stories. Perhaps you have made
one or the other of them so vivid that it has attracted extraneous
elements to itself that make the two kanji images fuse into one. Or
again, it may be that you did not pay sufficient attention to the
advice about clarifying a single connotation for the key word.Whether
or not you have had all or only a few of these problems,now is the time
to review the first 10 lessons keeping an eye out for them. Put aside
any schedule you may have set yourself until you have those lessons
down perfectly,that is,until you can run through all 6 steps outlined
above for every character,without a hitch. The most important thing in
this review is not really to see whether you are remembering the
characters, but to learn how to locate prob-lems and deal with them.One
final note before you close the book and begin running your
review.Everyone’s imagination works differently. Each has its own gifts
and its own defects.The more you pay attention to how you imagine
things,the more likely you are to find out what works best for you—and
more importantly, why. The one thing you must distrust, if the system
outlined in this book is to work for you, is your ability to remember
kanji just as they are, without doing any work on them.Once you start
making exceptions for characters you “know”or “have no trouble with”or
“don’t need to run through all the steps with,”you are headed for a
frustration that will take you a great deal of trouble to dig yourself
out of.In other words,if you start using the method only as a
“crutch”to help you only
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100 | remembering the kanji 1with the kanji you have trouble with, you
will quickly be limping along worse than ever.What we are offering here
is not a crutch,but a different way to walk.That said,let us pick up
where we left off.In this lesson we turn from primi-tive elements
having to do with plants to those having to do with animals, 4 ofthem
in all.235portent�ņHere we have a pictograph of the back of a turtle,
the two slop-ing vertical strokes representing the central ridge and
the four short strokes the pattern. Think of reading turtle shells as a
way to foretell the future, and in particular things that portendcoming
evils. [6]族 旒 旗 旙 旛 无* When this character is used as a primitive in
its full form, we keep the key-word sense of a portent. When it appears
to the left in its abbreviated form (namely, the left half only,⺦), we
shall give it the pictographic sense of a turtle.236peachtree桃To
associate the peach tree with the primitive for a portent,recall the
famous Japanese legend of Momotarō,the Peach Boy.It begins once upon a
time with a fisherman and his wife who wanted badly to have a child,
but none was born to them. Then one day the old man caught a giant
peach,out of which jumped a healthy young lad whom they named Peach
Boy. Though the boy was destined to perform heroic deeds, his birth
also por-tended great misfortune (how else could he become a
hero?).Thus the tree that is associated with a portent of coming evil
comes to be the peach tree. [10]慙 慥237stare�ܺTo give someone the “evil
eye”is to stare at them,wishing them evil. The roots of the
superstition are old and almost universal
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lesson 11| 101throughout the cultures of the world. In this kanji, too,
being stared at is depicted as an eye that portends evil. [11]慯
慶238dog�ʬWe know that the kanji for large takes on the meaning of the
St.Bernard dog when used as a primitive. In this frame we finally see
why.The drop added as a fourth and final stroke means that we have to
do with a normal-sized dog,which,compared to the St. Bernard, is no
more than a drop in the kennel. [4]慷 慾 憂 憇* As a primitive this
character can take two meanings. In the form given here it will mean a
very small dog (which we shall refer to as a chihuahua for convenience
sake).When it takes the form �ʭto the left of a character,we shall give
it the mean-ing of a pack of wild dogs.239statusquo�ʶDid you ever hear
the legend of the turtle who fell madly in love with a chihuahua but
could not have her because their two families did not like the idea of
their children intermarrying? Like all classic stories of ill-fated
love, this one shows how the young upset the status quo with an emotion
older and more powerful than anything their elders have devised to
counter it:blind love. [7]憊 憎 憐 憘240silence��Oddly enough, the character
for silence shows us a black chi-huahua. Actually, the cute little
critter’s name is Darkness, as I am sure you remember from the famous
song about silencethat begins,“Hello, Darkness, my old friend.…”Note
how the four dots reach all the way across the bottom ofthe character.
[15]
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102 | remembering the kanji 1憬 憺 懇241sortofthing�ĶThe key word in this
frame refers to a suffix that gives the word before it an adjectival
quality; hence we refer to it as “sort ofthing.” Reverting to the time
when dog was more widely eaten than it is today (see frame 121), we see
here a large cauldron boiling over an oven flame with the flesh of a
chihuahua being thrown into the whole concoction to make it into a
“hot-diggity,dog-diggity”sort of thing. [12]懈 應 懊 懋 懣 懶242reed荻You’ve
no doubt seen cattails, those swamp reeds with a furry flower to them
like the tail of a cat. This might just turn out to be a good way to
get rid of a troublesome pack of wild dogs:lure them into a swamp of
these reeds with the cattail flow-ers and then set fire to the swamp.
Take care to focus on the flower rather than the “cattail” to avoid
confusion with frame244 below. [10]懺 懼 懽 懾 戉243hunt�˩One of the worst
problems you have to face when you go hunt-ing is to guard your take
from the wild dogs. If you imagine yourself failing at the task, you
will probably have a stronger image than if you try to picture yourself
succeeding. [9]戊 戌 戍 戔244cat�̫Knowing how much dogs love to chase cats,
picture a pack ofwild dogs planting “cat-seedlings,”watering them,and
fertilizing them until they can be harvested as a crop of cats for them
to
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lesson 11| 103chase and torment.If you begin from the key word and
think ofa “crop of cats,” you will not confuse this story with the
appar-ently similar story of two frames ago. [11]戛 戯245cow�ɛCan you see
the“doodle”of a cow that has just been run over by a steamroller? The
small dot in the first stroke shows its head turned to one side, and
the next two strokes, the four legs. [4]戰 戲 戳 戴* As a primitive, the
same sense of cow is kept. Note only that when it is placed over
another element, its tail is cut off, giv-ing us 肉.246special�ɹDespite
the strong phonetic similarity,there will be no problem keeping the key
word special distinct from the character we met earlier for specialty
(frame 46), since the latter has imme-diate connotations lacking in
this kanji.Anyway,we shall let the key word of this frame refer to
some-thing in a special class all its own—like the sacred cows of India
that wander freely without fear of being butchered and ground into
hamburger. Even though the practice is originally a Hindu one, and in
any case no longer followed among the majority ofJapanese Buddhist
monks, the Buddha’s refusal to take the life of any sentient being
makes it only fitting that the cows should be placed on the sacred
grounds of a Buddhist temple in this kanji. [10]所
才247revelation�ъFolklore throughout the world tells us of talking
animals who show a wisdom superior to that of human beings,and that
same tradition has found its way into television shows and cartoons
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104 | remembering the kanji 1right into our own century. This character
depicts revelationthrough the mouth of a cow, suggesting oracular
utterances about truths hidden to human intelligence. [7]扎 打 払 托
扠248before�ňTake this key word in its physical, not its temporal, sense
(even though it refers to both). If you have a cow with human legs, as
the elements show us here, it can only be because you have two people
in a cow-suit. I always thought I’d prefer to be the one standing
before, rather than the one that holds up the rear and becomes the
“butt”of everyone’s laughter. [6]扣 扨 扮 托 扶 批249wash洗This character is
so logical that one is tempted to let the ele-ments speak for
themselves: water . . . before. But we have already decided we will not
allow such rationalism to creep into our stories. Not even this
once.Instead, let us change the character from the Peanuts comic strip
called “Pigpen,”who is always preceded by a little cloud ofdust and
grime, and rename him “Wash-Out.” Everywhere he walks,a spray of water
goes before him to sanitize everything he touches. [9]承 把Lesson12In
this the final lesson of Part one we introduce the useful compound
primi-tive for metals and the elements needed to form it, in addition
to picking up anumber of stray characters that have fallen by the
wayside.
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lesson 12| 105*umbrella抓The actual kanji on which this primitive
meaning umbrella is based will not show up until frame 1026. Think of
it as a large and brightly-colored beach umbrella. If you compare this
with frame 8, you will notice how the two strokes touch here, while the
kanji for eight would leave a gaping leak in the top. [2]抑
抒250jammedin介The idea of something getting jammed into something else
is depicted here by having a walking stick get jammed into an umbrella
frame by someone shoving it into an already occupied slot in the
umbrella stand at the door. First notice the vertical strokes: on the
left is the curved umbrella handle, and on the right the straight
walking stick. Now try to imagine the two parties tugging at their
respective properties like two kids on a wishbone, creating a scene at
the entrance of an elegant restau-rant. [4]抑 抒 抔 投251world�ՌAs the world
gets jammed with more and more people, there is less and less space.
Imagine yourself taking an air flight over a world so densely populated
that every bit of it is sectioned offlike a gigantic checkerboard (the
rice fields). If you look closely at the character, you should be able
to see a kind of movement taking place as still more is being jammed
into that already narrow space. [9]抜 抬252tea茶As everyone knows, tea is
made from tea leaves. But the teaplant itself has its own flowers,
which can be quite beautiful and add a special flavor to the tea,as the
Chinese found out already
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106 | remembering the kanji 1over 4,600 years ago. With the image of a
terrace of floweringtea bushes in mind, picture a number of brightly
painted and very l-o-n-g wooden poles (frame 195) placed here and there
in their midst,with a tiny umbrella at the top to shade the
delicate-tasting tea flowers. [9]抹 押 抽 拂 担 拆*meeting拊This compound
primitive depicts a meeting as a massive gath-ering of people under one
umbrella. The full kanji from which this derives will be introduced
later in frame 752. The impor-tant thing here is to picture the scene
just described and associ-ate it with the word meeting. [3]拈 拉
拊253fit�ЈThe kanji for fit reads literally, top to bottom, as a
meetingof mouths—which is a rather descriptive way of speaking ofa
romantic kiss. We all know what happens when there is no meeting of
minds and when people’s ideas don’t fit with one another. But this
kanji invites us to imagine what happened to the romance of a certain
unfortunate couple whose mouthsdidn’t fit. [6]拏 拒254pagoda��On the left
we see a mound of dirt, and to the right flowers made to fit together.
The two sides combine to create a great pagoda made of dirt, with
flowers by the tens of thousands fitted together for the roofing of
each of the layers. Be sure to put yourself in the scene and fit a few
of the flowers in place yourself so that the image works its way into
memory with full force. [12]拗 招 拭
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lesson 12| 107255king�See what you can do to come up with a pictograph
of a king’sscepter here that suits your own idea of what it should look
like.You might even begin with the basic element for I beam and then
try to fit the remaining third stroke in. [4]拮 拯 拱 拳* As a primitive,
this can mean either king or scepter, but it will usually be taken to
mean ball, as an abbreviation of the char-acter in the next
frame.256jewel�ΉNote the drop here in the king’s scepter, which is
exactly what you would expect it to be: a precious jewel handed down
from of old as a symbol of his wealth and power. [5]拾 拿* As a
primitive, we can use this to mean either jewel or ball.When it appears
anywhere other than on the left side of a kanji, it generally takes the
same shape as here. On the left,it will be lacking the final stroke,
making it the same as the character in the previous
frame,��.257treasure��Every house has its treasure,as every thief knows
only too well.While the things we treasure most are usually of
sentimental value, we take the original sense of the term treasure here
and make it refer to jewels kept in one’s house. [8]指 挙258pearl�ϠTake
care to keep the meaning of this kanji distinct from that for jewel.
Think of the most enormous pearl you have ever seen,a great
vermilion-colored ball sitting on your ring—and mak-
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108 | remembering the kanji 1ing it extremely difficult to move without
falling over from the weight of the thing. [10]挿 捕259present�ϾDo not
think of a “gift”here,but of the present moment,as dis-tinct from the
future and the past. The kanji gives us a ball in which we see the
present—obviously a crystal ball that enables us to see things going on
at the present in faraway places. [11]捨 捺260lunatic�˂A lunatic is
literally one driven mad by the light of the moon,and the most famous
of the “looneys” are the legendary lycan-thropes or “wolfmen.”
Sometimes the transformation is only a temporary phenomenon, sometimes
it is permanent. In the latter case, the poor chap takes off on all
fours to live with the beasts. To remember this kanji, imagine one of
these lycan-thropes going looney and setting himself up as king of a
pack of wild dogs that roams about and terrorizes innocent suburban
communities. [7]掃 掎261emperor�ڇAn emperor, as we all know, is a
ruler—something like a king but higher in status. The white bird
perched above the king,elevating him to imperial heights, is the
messenger he sends back and forth to the gods to request advice and
special favors,something that white birds have long done in folklore
through-out the world. [9]掛 探
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lesson 12| 109262display�шThe trick to remembering this character lies
in associating the key word with the line from the nursery rhyme about
4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie:“Wasn’t this a dainty dish to set
before the king?” If we think of display in terms of that famous
line,and the king with his head thrown back and his mouth wide open as
4 and 20 blackbirds fly in one after the other, we shall have satisfied
both the elements and their position. [7]控 掫263whole�ŨWholeness suggests
physical and spiritual health,“having your act together.”The
kanji-image for wholeness depicts being “kingunder your own umbrella,”
that is, giving order to your own life. I know it sounds terribly
abstract, but what could be more abstract than the word whole? [6]掲
掾264plug栓Here we think of plug in the sense of a cork or stopper used
to seal the mouth of a bottle, water faucet, or something with liquid
running out of it. Forgetting the abstract picture of the former frame,
let us work with all the primitive units: tree . . .umbrella . . .
ball. Imagine a tree with a faucet in the side out ofwhich tennis balls
are flowing, bouncing all over the ground by the hundreds.You fight
your way up to it and shove your giant beach umbrella into the tree to
plug it up. [10]揆 揚265logic�ІWe first referred to this character back in
frame 173, to which you might want to return to have a peek.The image
of logic we are given is something like a central jewel in a computer,
like the jewels in old clocks that keep them running smoothly. Try
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110 | remembering the kanji 1to picture yourself making your way
through all the rams and roms and approaching this shining jewel, a
chorus of voices and a blast of trumpets in the background heralding
the great seat of all-knowing logic. [11]揩 損266lord主“A man’s home is
his castle,”goes the proverb from an age where it was the male who was
lord of the household. Fundamentally,it means only that every one of us
is a bit (or drop) of a king in our own environment.As for the
positioning of the elements,ifyou take care to “read off” the
primitives in this way, you won’t end up putting the drop down below,
where it turns the kanji into a jewel. [5]挟 振* As a primitive
element,we set the key word aside entirely and take it as a pictograph
of a solid brass candlestick (with the drop representing the flame at
the top).267pour注Picture pouring water from a lighted candlestick. What
could be more ridiculous, or simpler, as a way to recall this kanji?
[8]搖 搬268pillar柱The pillar referred to here is the wooden beam that
stands at the entrance to a traditional Japanese house. Carve it in
imagina-tion into the shape of a gigantic candlestick and your work is
done. [9]携 摠
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lesson 12| 111269gold�ǑIf this were not one of the most common
characters you will ever have to write, I would apologize for having to
give the explanation that follows. Anyway, we want to depict bars
ofgold bullion with an umbrella overhead to shade them from the heat
(and perhaps to hide them as well).The bullion is made by melting down
all the scepters of the kingdom,drop by drop, and shaping them into
bars. [8]摧 摩 摯 摶 摸 摺 撃 撈* As a primitive,it means not only gold but any
metal at all.270pigiron�ʑPig iron refers to iron in the crude form in
which it emerges from the smelting furnaces. Of all the various forms
metal can take,this one shows us metal before it has been
refined.Imagine two photographs labeled “before” and “after” to show
the pro-cess. [14]撥 撲271bowl�ɢLet bowl suggest a large and heavy golden
bowl into which you are throwing all the books you own to mash them
into pulp,for some outrageous reason you will have to think up
your-self. [13]操 據272copper�ʅPicture an order of monks serving as
chaplains for the police force. Their special habit, made of protective
metal, is distin-guished by a row of copper buttons just like the
“cops” they serve. [14]擯 擽
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112 | remembering the kanji 1273angling�ǣThe character we learned for
fishing (frame 172) refers to the professional, net-casting industry,
while the angling of this character refers to the sport.The odd thing
is that your anglingrod is a golden ladle which you are using to scoop
goldfish out of a river. [11]攤 攬274needle�ǝIn frame 10 we referred ahead
to this full character from which the primitive for needle (on the
right) derives. Since we already expect that needles are made of metal,
let us picture a set ofsolid gold darning needles to complete the
kanji. [10]攻 政275inscription�ʘTake inscription in the sense of the name
you ask the jeweler to carve on a gold bracelet or inside a gold ring
to identify its owner or communicate some sentimental message. It will
help if you can recall the first time you had this done and the
feelings you had at the time. [14]敖 敢276tranquilize�ήThe first
lie-detector machines of the twentieth century worked by wiring pieces
of metal to the body to measure the amount ofsweat produced when
questions were asked. It was discovered that nervousness produced more
sweat, indicating subcon-scious reactions when the truth was getting
too close for com-fort. Nowadays, people can take drugs that
tranquilize them in such a way as to neutralize the effect of the
device,which is why other means have had to be developed. [18]敷 斑
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Page 114
lesson 12| 113With that, we come to the end of Part one. Before going
on to Part two, itwould be a good idea to return now to the
Introduction and read it onceagain. Anything that did not make sense at
first should now be clear.By this time, too, you should be familiar
with the use of all the Indexes. Ifnot, take a few minutes to study
them, since you will no doubt find them usefulin the pages ahead.
Vidal
> Jeg har �bnet en webside, hvorfra jeg blot skal kopiere et enkelt ord.
> Siden er skrevet i pdf. Hvis jeg kopierer ordet og s�tter det ind i
> notepad, s� kommer der blot et sp�rgsm�lsteg. Er der en klog person, der
> kan fort�lle mig, hvad jeg kan g�re?
> Steffen
---------------
?t Note that the first stroke "cuts" through the second. This
distinguishes seven from the character for spoon tl (frame 444), in
which the horizontal stroke stops short. [2] - -b * As a primitive, this
association with the kanji for cut W to be learned in a later lesson
(frame 85).
------------------
Dette er lavet med en lille 'genvej' og tager ikke
de japanske skrifttegn med.
Bring dokumentet op fulsk�rm, lav en screendump og
analyser billedet med Abbyy Finereader eller lign.
Om det er umagen v�rd ved jeg ikke.
--
Venlig hilsen,
Villy Dalsgaard
Carl Drud
> Det her "Vis som HTML" st�r ikke ud for dette link, som det ellers
> plejer at g�re. Jeg ved ikke hvorfor.
> Siden er her:
> http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK%201_sample.pdf
Her er den i HTML:
--
Carl
Carl Drud
> Dette er lavet med en lille 'genvej' og tager ikke
> de japanske skrifttegn med.
>
> Bring dokumentet op fulskærm, lav en screendump og
> analyser billedet med Abbyy Finereader eller lign.
>
> Om det er umagen værd ved jeg ikke.
_________________________________________
九 If you take care to remember the stroke orderfrom thekanji, you
will not have trouble later keeping it distinct from the kanji for
power 力 (frame 858). [2]
中 丱
______________________________
Dette er kopieret fra det downloadede PDF dokument.
--
Carl
Steffen
tidligere indlæg. Desværre viser den ikke kanji-tegnene, men viser i stedet
"‰ Š", "&" m.m. - Ærgeligt.
Steffen
"Carl Drud" <carl...@gmx.com> skrev i meddelelsen
news:878wf9c...@cdnews.my-fqdn.de...
Vidal
Hvordan gør du det? Abbyy vil ikke tage selve PDF'en
ind uden password.
Del din visdom med folket. ;-)
Frank Damgaard
>
> "Steffen" <box3...@yahoo.dk> skrev i meddelelsen
> news:4ad96b8d$0$36565$edfa...@dtext01.news.tele.dk...
>
>> Siden er skrevet i pdf. Hvis jeg kopierer ordet og sætter det ind i
>> der kan fortælle mig, hvad jeg kan gøre?
>
> Det tror jeg ikke kan lade sig gøre. Min erfaring er, at det ikke er
> muligt at kopiere ord eller sætninger fra pdf-filer.
Min erfaring er at det kan lade sig gøre.
dog i et pat tilfælde er det ikke muligt:
1) det er et indscannet dokument (image) uden OCR tekst lagt ind.
2) der er lavet beskyttelse mod kopiering, denne virker dog ikke
altid i alle pdf-viewere.
Carl Drud
> Hvordan g�r du det? Abbyy vil ikke tage selve PDF'en
> ind uden password.
Jeg downloadede PDF dokumentet fra Steffens link, �bnede det i Evince
[�] og markerede tekst og kopierede ;-)
[�]http://projects.gnome.org/evince/
--
Carl
Vidal
Tak, det er da et dejligt program. :-)
Steffen
Steffen