Remembering the Kanji: A Systematic Guide to Reading Japanese Characters

405 Pages·2008·4.03 MB·English

by  James W. Heisig

Japanese language
James W. Heisig
Following the fi rst volume of Remembering the Kanji, the present
work takes up the pronunciation of characters and provides stu-
dents with helpful tools for memorizing them. Behind the notori-
ous inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come
to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several Remembering the Kanji 2
coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them
in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent
A Systematic Guide to
in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms.
Many of the “primitive elements,” or building blocks, used Reading the Japanese Characters
in the drawing of the characters also serve to indicate the “Chinese
reading” that particular kanji use, chiefl y in compound terms. By
learning one of the kanji that uses such a “signal primitive,” one
can learn the entire group at the same time. In this way, Remember-
ing the Kanji 2 lays out the varieties of phonetic pattern and offers
helpful hints for learning readings, which might otherwise appear
completely random, in an effi cient and rational way. A parallel
system of pronouncing the kanji, their “Japanese readings,” uses
native Japanese words assigned to particular Chinese characters.
Although these are more easily learned because of the association
of the meaning to a single word, Heisig creates a kind of phonetic
alphabet of single syllable words, each connected to a simple
Japanese word, and shows how they can be combined to help
memorize particularly troublesome vocabulary.
Unlike Volume 1, which proceeds step-by-step in a series of
lessons, Volume 2 is organized in such as way that one can study
individual chapters or use it as a reference for pronunciation
problems as they arise. Individual frames cross-reference the kanji
to alternate readings and to the frame in Volume 1 in which the
meaning and writing of the kanji was fi rst introduced. Ample
indexes at the end of the text are devoted to hand-drawn kanji,
the signal primitives, the Chinese readings, and the Japanese
readings, as well as a comprehensive cross-reference list to the
material contained in Volume 1.
James W. Heisig is professor and permanent research fellow at the
Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan.
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu
Remembering the Kanji 2 · heisig
remembering the kanji 2
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by the same author
Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries
in 3 Hours Each. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007 (1987)
Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning
and Writing of Japanese Characters. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press,
2007 (1977)
Remembering the Kanji 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-
Level Profi ciency (with Tanya Sienko). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press,
2008 (1994)
Kanji para recordar i: Curso mnemotécnico para el aprendizaje de la escritura y
el signifi cado de los caracteres japoneses (with Marc Bernabé and Verònica
Calafell). Barcelona: Herder Editorial, 2005 (2001)
Kanji para recordar ii: Guía sistemática para la lectura de los caracteres japone-
ses (with Marc Bernabé and Verònica Calafell). Barcelona: Herder Editorial,
2004
Kana para recordar: Curso mnemotécnico para el aprendizaje de los silabarios
japoneses (with Marc Bernabé and Verònica Calafell). Barcelona: Herder Edi-
torial, 2005 (2003)
Die Kanji lernen und behalten 1. Bedeutung und Schreibw eise der japanischen
Schrif zeichen (with Robert Rauther). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Kloster-
mann Verlag, 2006 (2005)
Die Kanji lernen und behalten 2. Systematische Anleitung zu den Lesungen der
japanischen Schrif zeichen (with Robert Rauther). Frankfurt am Main: Vitto-
rio Klostermann Verlag, 2006
Die Kana lernen und behalten. Die japanische Silbenschrif lesen und schreiben
in je drei Stunden (with Klaus Gresbrand). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio
Klosterm ann Verlag, 2006
Kanji: Imaginar para aprender (with Rafael Shoji). São Paulo: jbc Editora, 2007
RK 2 (UHP).indb ii 10/4/2007 8:58:42 AM
Remembering the Kanji
vol. 2
A Systematic Guide to
Reading Japanese Characters
James W. Heisig
third edition
University of Hawai‘i Press
honolulu
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Copyright © 1987, 2005, 2008 by James W. Heisig
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form without the written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
th
Second edition: 12 printing, 2005
T ird edition: 1st printing, 2008
12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heisig, James W., 1944-
Remembering the kanji : a complete course on how not to forget the meaning
and writing of Japanese characters / James W. Heisig. — 5th ed.
v. <1> ; cm.
Includes indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3165-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Japanese language—Orthography and spelling. 2. Chinese characters—
Japan. 3. Japanese language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. I. Title.
PL547.H4 2007
495.6’82421—dc22
2006103109
T e typesetting for this book was done at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines
for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
RK 2 (UHP).indb iv 10/4/2007 8:58:42 AM
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Note to the 2nd Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
part one: Chinese Readings
1. T e Kana and T eir Kanji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2. Pure Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3. One-Time Chinese Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4. Characters with No Chinese Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5. Semi-Pure Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6. Readings from Everyday Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7. Mixed Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8. Readings from Useful Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
9. A Potpourri of Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
10. Supplementary Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
part two: Japanese Readings
11. A Mnemonics for the Japanese Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Indexes
i. Signal Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
ii. Kanji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
iii. Chinese Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
iv. Japanese Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
v. Cross-Reference List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
v
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Introduction
As the title suggests, the present book has been prepared as a companion
volume to Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget
the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters. It presumes that the material
covered in the fi rst book has already been mastered and concentrates exclu-
sively on the pronunciation of the Japanese characters. T ose who approached
the study of the kanji in a diff erent manner may fi nd what is in these pages of
some use, but it has not been designed with them in mind.
As I explained in the Introduction to the former volume, if it is the stu-
dent’s goal to acquire profi ciency in using the Japanese writing system, the
entire set of “general-use characters” (常用漢字) need to be learned. To insist on
studying them in the order of importance or frequency generally followed in
Japanese schools is pointless if some other order is more eff ective as a means to
that fi nal goal. A moment’s refl ection on the matter is enough to dispose of the
common bias that the methods employed by those who come to Japanese as a
foreign language should mirror the methods used by the Japanese themselves
to learn how to read and write. Accumulated experience and education—and
in most cases an energetic impatience with one’s own ignorance—distinguish
the older student too radically from Japanese school children to permit basic
study habits to be taken over with only cosmetic changes. A clearer focus on
the destination should help the older student chart a course more suited to
his or her time, resources, and learning abilities—and not just run harder and
faster around the same track.
Perhaps the single greatest obstacle to taking full advantage of one’s privi-
leged position as an adult foreigner is a healthy fear of imposing alien systems
on Japanese language structures. But to impose a system on ways of learning a
language does not necessarily mean to impose a system on the language itself.
To miss this distinction is to risk condemning oneself to the worst sorts of
ineffi ciency for the worst sorts of reasons.
Obviously the simplest way to learn Japanese is as the Japanese themselves
do: by constant repetition, without interference, in a closed cultural environ-
ment. Applied to the kanji, this involves drilling and drilling and drilling until
the forms and sounds become habitual. T e simplest way, alas, is also the most
1
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2 | introduction
time-consuming and frustrating. By adding a bit of organized complexity to
one’s study investments, the same level of profi ciency can be gained in a frac-
tion of the time. T is was demonstrated in the fi rst volume as far as the mean-
ing and writing of the characters are concerned. By isolating these skills and
abstracting from any relationship they have to the rest of the language, a fi rm
foundation was laid for the next step, the assignation of sounds or “readings”
to the individual characters. T at is the subject of this book.
T e earlier volume was described as a “complete course”; the present vol-
ume is offered as a “guide.” The differences between the two books are as
important as the similarities. While both books are intended to be self-taught
and allow individual readers to progress at their own pace, the former traced
out a path step by step, in a clearly defi ned order. Here, however, the mate-
rial is presented in such a way that it may be followed frame by frame or may
be rearranged freely to suit the particular student’s needs. T e reason is that
the readings of the kanji do not allow for any more than a discontinuous sys-
tematization: blocks of repeating patterns and clusters of unpatterned material
organized under a variety of rubrics. In fact, the only thing ironclad about the
method is the assumption that the student already knows what the characters
mean and how they are written. Without that knowledge, the systematization
becomes all but opaque. In any event, it is important to gain some understand-
ing of how the book as a whole is laid out before deciding how best to make use
of it.
T e book falls into two parts of wildly disproportionate length. T e fi rst
ten chapters cover the Chinese or on readings (音読み); the last chapter, the
Japanese or kun readings (訓読み). T is should not give the impression that the
on readings themselves are so much more diffi cult than the kun readings, but
only that their systematization requires much more attention. What is more,
the method followed in Chapter 11 is closer to that followed in vol. 1 and can
thus be treated in relatively short shrif .
One of the chief reasons for frustration with the Chinese readings is not
that there are so many kanji to read, but that there are so few readings to go
around, creating a massive confusion of homonyms to the uninitiated. No
sooner does one attempt to establish a set of rules to rein in this phenomenon
than exceptions begin to nibble away at one’s principles like termites until the
entire construction begins to look like a colossal waste of eff ort.
True enough, there are exceptions. A lot of them. But there is also a great
deal of consistency which can be sif ed out and structured for the learning.
T e principal aim of the fi rst ten chapters is to isolate these patterns of con-
sistency and use them to the fullest, holding brute memory at bay as long as
possible. To this end I have introduced what are called “signal primitives.” By
this I mean primitive elements within the written form which signal a particular
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introduction | 3
Chinese reading. Since most of these primitive forms were already assigned a
meaning in the fi rst book, the strategy should come as a welcome relief and
carry you well over one-third of your way through the on readings. Whatever
readings fall outside the compass of this method are introduced through a
variety of devices of uneven diffi culty, each assigned its own chapter.
Chapter 1 presents 56 kanji which form the parent-kanji for the forms of
the hiragana and katakana syllabaries and whose readings are directly related
to the modern kana sounds. 49 of them are Chinese readings, 7 are Japanese.
Chapter 2 covers a large group of characters belonging to “pure groups”
in which the presence of a given signal primitive entails a uniform sound.
Chapter 3 presents the small group of kanji whose readings are not homo-
nyms and may therefore be learned in conjunction with a particular character.
Chapter 4, conversely, lists characters with no on reading.
Chapter 5 returns to the signal primitives, this time gathering together
those groups in which a signal primitive entails a uniform sound—but with a
single exception to the pattern. T ese are called “semi-pure” groups.
Chapter 6 brings together readings drawn from everyday words, all or
nearly all of which should have been learned during the course of a general
introduction to Japanese conversation. Allowing for occasional slight shif s of
meaning from those assigned the kanji in the fi rst volume, the only work that
remains to be done is to see how Japanese puts the pieces together to create
new meanings.
Chapter 7 returns one fi nal time to the use of signal primitives, picking
up what characters can still make use of the device and subdividing them into
three classes of “mixed-groups” where a given primitive element can signal
two or more diff erent sounds.
Chapters 8 and 9 follow the pattern of Chapter 6, except that the com-
pounds will be less familiar and require learning some new vocabulary. T e
only thing these kanji have in common is that they do not belong to any natu-
ral phonetic group. T e most useful compounds are presented in Chapter 8.
T e generally less useful compounds of Chapter 9 are all introduced with
exp lanatory comments.
Chapter 10 is a wastepaper basket into which I have thrown the remain-
ing readings: uncommon, rare, or generally restricted to proper names.
All the kanji from Chapters 1 through 10 are arranged in a frame of uni-
form design (see figure 1 on the following page). Taken together, they cover
the entire range of on readings established as standard by Japan’s Ministry of
Education. Five indexes have been added to facilitate reference and review.
Index i l ists all the signal primitives, arranged according to number of
strokes, and the frame in which they fi rst appear.
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