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The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Characters Paperback – 22 Mar 2016

by Christopher Seely (Author), Kenneth G Henshall (Author), Jiageng Fan (Contributor)

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The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji is a unique study guide that provides a comprehensive introduction to all the kanji characters on the Japanese Ministry of Education's official Joyo (General Use) list.

Revised and expanded, this Japanese language book features explanations of the origins and meanings of over 2,000 characters and provides detailed notes on the historical development of each character. Along with the history and development, it also provides all the information needed to read and write the characters.

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Product details

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; Bilingual edition (1 February 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 4805311703
ISBN-13: 978-4805311707
Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 3.6 x 22.9 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 771 g
Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Alphabet
- #10 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Vocabulary, Slang & Word Lists > Vocabulary
- #24 in Books > Politics, Philosophy & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Grammar

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"This book is nothing less than an etymological kanji dictionary of all 2000+ joyo (everyday use) kanji! For each kanji character, it presents its history in brief, references it to associated characters, tells its story of how it has evolved into its current form, and also its readings (both kun and on readings) and three example words/compound words written using the character. Of all the Japanese learning-related books I own, this one is by far the one I've gotten the most out of. I heartily recommend this one! --Squidoo language learning

..".I use it every single day and have done so for almost a year now. It is the most brilliant reference book ever for learning kanji. I use this in conjunction with a phone app for Android, Obenkyo. I use the app to learn how to write each kanji and to study them. I consult this book daily to learn the Why of each kanji, and to figure out how to remember them. There is a story to each kanji--and when you know the story it is much easier to remember each kanji. To find a kanji, you look it up by the readings in the back. If you get one book to learn kanji, this is the one you should get." --Goodreads

About the Author

Christopher Seeley (B.A. Hons. & Ph.D., London University) has written extensively on the Japanese writing system and Chinese characters; his publications include A History of Writing in Japan (E.J. Brill, 1991, republished University of Hawai'i Press, 2000). He was a senior lecturer and Head of Department at the Asian Languages Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand until his retirement in 2001.

Kenneth G. Henshall is well known for the many books he has written on Japanese literature, history, and culture, as well as for his popular Japanese language-learning textbooks. A graduate of the universities of London (B.A. Hons), Sydney (Ph.D.), and Adelaide (Dip. Ed.), he is now Associate Professor of Japanese at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He has also taught at the universities of Auckland, Western Australia, California, and Waikato.

Dr. Jiageng Fan specializes in the relationship between the Chinese and Japanese languages and scripts, focusing on the etymology of characters and the change of societal/cultural values which they reflect. He has lived, studied and taught Chinese, Japanese and English in China and Australia and has traveled extensively. After obtaining a B.A. at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Canterbury. He believes in the freedom of mankind and the harmony between men and machines.

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Amazon.com: 16 reviews

Gamera

Quite nice update to the original book

26 March 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

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Quite nice update to the original book. Positive changes - first section has the 1006 educational characters in its superior pedagogical order to the previous 996; characters are shown in clear large print which is much easier to discriminate than the previous brush strokes; all 2136 new kanji are included of course; JLPT levels are marked, however they had to arbitrarily decide if a character is L2 or L3, also all characters other than L2-L5 are marked L1, what else could you do although in the older rankings 26 rare kanji were properly left out of the listings, ex #1731 (CHIN) now has an L1 listing whereas previously properly left out; mixed ON-kun kanji examples are printed caps/small for components which is nice (ex #1187) unlike before.
The etymologies have undergone a lot of rewrite with sources cited. Sometimes this is really helpful. As an example #1234 KIN meaning "fungus, bacteria". I slightly prefer O'Neill's "fungus, germ" but not bad. In the etymology, it is clearly shown that the character originally meant mushroom and fungus (Shirakawa and Shuowen). Try reading the etymology and the character springs alive! (note the crowding concept in the character). Often it is more useful than the mnemonic given. In addition the examples are really good here and throughout the book. Here SAIKIN is bactera (detailed germ) and KINRUI (fungus type) means fungi - excellent. The example compounds in the book are really great with short and accurate definitions.
By the way, Kanji Alive (U. of Chicago) online also has really nice mnemonics for all N2-N5 and kyoiku kanji as well as others and are based on DeRoo. Some of those mnemonics are really super.

24 people found this helpful.

Kikaida

Not a learning guide, more a dictionary

13 January 2019 - Published on Amazon.com

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I gave this three stars instead of two due to the sheer volume of research that went into making this book. I bought it as a study guide (as the title suggested it was) and it is not. This is more a tome of historical reference as to how kanji was created/discovered and interpreted. It truly is a great piece of work but for 'learning' how to read and retain? It falls way short. You get a nice paragraph how how the symbol was discovered, unearth and modified over the years and a one sentence mnemonic that reeeeeeallly falls short. If you depend on that, you will be very disappointed. Great historical reference book, not so much a study guide.

One person found this helpful.

Amazon Customer

Great book for kanji etymologies

12 December 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

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This book summarizes the origins of all 2136 Joyo Kanji required for learning Japanese. It also provides a short mnemonic for each character.

The consensus of advice I got was to use this book as a supplement to the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course, which has a better learning order and mnemonic system but doesn’t have much information about etymologies. KKLC organizes all the Joyo Kanji in a logical learning order with an efficient system for remembering each kanji and its main vocabulary, while this book gives you thorough background information that adds another dimension to your learning. With these two books for kanji, plus a good textbook like Nakama, plus Rikai-kun/chan/sama, the Makino grammar books and some kind of reading material, you are in good shape to teach yourself how to read Japanese.

You can’t really teach yourself kanji from this book by itself, because you would learn the characters in a mostly random order with no blueprint. Also the mnemonics are not always very helpful, and don’t add up to a structured and consistent system (this is where KKLC is in a class by itself). Still, I like that the mnemonics in this book provide a different perspective, with some useful insights that KKLC doesn’t have.

Some people might find the etymologies a bit too much, since they go into discussions of different academic interpretations of where a character came from and how it developed over time. Personally I like having access to this information, even if it’s mostly just for curiosity. Although most of the etymologies are not easy to apply for mnemonic purposes, many of them are interesting in themselves. Also they can be very helpful for understanding the nuances of a kanji, which you can't get from a dictionary.

The etymologies cram in a lot of information and citations, but they’re written in a compact style, as are the mnemonics. I like how neither talks down to you or wastes your time with silly nonsense or cuteness.

To get the most value out of this book, use it as a reference book rather than as a textbook. Be purposeful in drawing out the information that helps you, and ignore the rest.

8 people found this helpful.

S Gomez

Five Stars

26 July 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Great book

u8ok

great book

22 December 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

great book

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