Remembering the Kanji 3 Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-Level Proficiency, Języki obce, ...

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CONTENTS
P
REFACE
by Tanya Sienko
5
I
NTRODUCTION
7
PART ONE
:
WRITING
1
New Primitives & Kanji Primitives
15
2
Major Primitive Elements
28
3
Miscellaneous Kanji
144
4
Western Measurements
160
5
Phonetic Characters
162
6
Old & Alternate Forms
165
PART TWO
:
READING
7
Old Pure Groups
177
8
New Pure Groups
203
9
Semi-Pure Groups
236
10
Mixed Groups
264
11
A Potpourri of Readings
299
12
Kanji with Japanese Readings Only
344
13
Readings of Old & Alternate Forms
355
14
Supplementary Kanji
359
INDEXES
INDEX
1
Number of Strokes
371
INDEX
2
Keywords and Primitive Meanings
389
INDEX
3
Readings
418
INDEX
4
Primitive Elements
487
Layout of Frames for Part One
490
Layout of Frames for Part Two
491
A
BOUT THE AUTHORS
493
Preface
Tanya Sienko
W
HEN
I
FIRST
contacted Dr. Heisig with a proposal to add a third vol-
ume to
Remembering the Kanji
, I somehow left the impression that it
was my rather esoteric needs as a scientist that left me hankering for
more kanji than the 2,042 I had learned with his method. Actually, it
was not the technical prose of Yukawa and Tomonaga on ³eld theory
that were causing me my biggest headaches but ordinary Japanese nov-
els. Having read mystery novels to polish my reading in other languages,
I was disappointed to ³nd that the “essential” or “general-use” charac-
ters were simply not enough to gain entry into the Japanese thriller.
After just a few chapters, my maiden voyage ended on the rocks. So
much for “basic literacy,” I thought to myself. And so was born the idea
for this book.
During the time of the American Occupation, the Japanese writing
system underwent a complete overhaul, which saw the number of
Chinese characters to be learned during the years of compulsory educa-
tion reduced to a bare minimum of 1,850. The idea was to simplify the
system and facilitate literacy by removing rarely used kanji from circula-
tion. What the reformers did not count on in their long-range plan was
the resistance of the general public to the disappearance of many kanji
customarily used for names. Families reacted by continuing to name
their children with “traditional” names, but the government refused to
register the kanji. This resulted in the bizarre situation where a number
of Japanese were growing up legally nameless. In 1951 the Ministry of
Education grudgingly backed down and approved another 92 “legal”
characters for names, followed by another 28 in 1976. In 1981 the
number of “general-use” kanji was increased in 1,945 and in 1990 the
 6
PREFACE
kanji approved for use in names was increased to 284. This is the situa-
tion at present.
Of course, there were still numerous kanji outside the list that contin-
ued to be used in place names, or that appeared in books published
before the educational reforms and were impractical to update. Over the
past twenty years many of these exiled characters have migrated back
into daily use. Advertisers often prefer the compactness and precision of
older kanji to their phonetic equivalents. Increasing competition has
induced universities to include more and more “unof³cial” kanji in their
entrance examinations. And popular novelists, as always, cling tenacious-
ly to their cache of little-known glyphs as a mark of the trade. Finally,
the ubiquitous word processor has turned the distinction between what
is “allowed” and what is “disallowed” into something of an anachro-
nism.
For the foreign student who has landed in this mess, there have been
only two alternatives: either you adhere to the of³cial list, or you stum-
ble about blindly trying to improve your knowledge as best you can.
The idea behind the present book was to offer a third choice: supple-
mentary kanji to lay a solid basis for contemporary Japanese.
In addition to the method of selection explained in Dr. Heisig’s
introduction, I myself checked the ³nal list against Edward Daub, et al.,
Comprehending Technical Japanese
(University of Wisconsin Press,
1975), which used frequency lists to determine the 500 kanji most used
in technical writings. With the exception of characters speci³c to one
³eld, this list is represented in the pages that follow.
Of the many people who assisted me in this project, I would like par-
ticularly to thank Ronald D. Mabbitt for help in the cross-referencing
and for his many useful suggestions on the structure of the book; and
Kanda Yumiko P,Æ
Ë
{ for checking some of the more obscure com-
pounds.
Introduction
T
HE
A
MERICAN PHILOSOPHER
William James once wrote that a great idea
goes through three stages on its way to acceptance. First, it is dismissed
as nonsense. Then it is acknowledged as true, but insigni³cant. Finally, it
is seen to be important, but not really anything new. Time and again
history con³rms the wisdom of James’s observation, but it also reminds
us that the very same bias that resists the invasion of novelty also serves
to swat away many a µea-brained idea buzzing about for attention.
In this connection, I must admit I am of two minds about
Remem-
bering the Kanji
and its companion volumes. I have always had the sense
that there was something µea-brained about the whole project. Its
reception by students of the Japanese language across the world has
been as much a surprise to me as to the publishers, the Japan Publi-
cations Trading Company. We had expected no more than a short buzz,
followed by a ³rm whack into oblivion. From the start I was convinced
that if there was anything important in the method, it surely was noth-
ing new. All I had done, after all, was to put some semblance of order
into what students of the kanji had always done: trick their minds into
making easily forgettable shapes more memorable. The sales of the
books, as well as scores of letters from readers, has convinced me that
this is in fact the case.
On the one hand, the method seems to have proved itself a natural
one suited to large number of students motivated to study the kanji on
their own. On the other, it remains virtually useless for classroom
instruction. This is hardly surprising, since it aims to do something the
classroom cannot do, namely to tap the imagination of the individual at
the individual’s own learning pace. To the native speaker of Japanese
trained in the traditional school system and trying to teach the Japanese
writing system to those whose primary education was outside of the
“kanji curtain,” it can only appear a distracting gimmick. For one who
does not know from experience the question behind the method, the
answer—even if it works—makes no sense. Whatever the merits of
 8
INTRODUCTION
Remembering the Kanji
as a
learning
tool, then, its demerits as a
teach-
ing
tool are beyond redemption. This is probably for the best. To force
the expectations of the textbook on the method would probably only
end up frustrating everyone—teachers and students. The saving grace of
the books is that they are simply too µea-brained to run the circuit of
“course work.”
Letters from readers have combined expressions of gratitude with
more good ideas for improvements than I could ever assimilate into sub-
sequent editions. The misprints that had slipped in along the way,
thanks again to alert readers, have been periodically corrected in later
printings. For the rest I have let the books stand as they are, reckoning
that their unpolished edges encourage the very kind of participation that
makes them work in the ³rst place.
The one most common request that has haunted me over the years
has been for a supplementary volume that would pick up some of the
more useful kanji outside the lists propagated as standard by Japan’s
Ministry of Education. The request always seemed reasonable enough.
When I myself had worked through the of³cial list of kanji, I was left
with much the same feeling: learning to write the characters is so sim-
ple—now if there were some list that could guide me into learning
more
of them…. The only solution I could see was to learn new characters as
they showed up in reading. Unfortunately, I kept no records, and could
only reply to readers that they, too, let their particular reading habits
guide their acquisition of new kanji. But I always knew it was not quite
the right answer to an important question.
Then, about a year and a half ago, Tanya Sienko, a theoretical physi-
cist from the United States employed at Japan’s National Institute of
Science and Technology Policy, persuaded me that something concrete
could be done. Her idea was for a volume that would aim at raising
pro³ciency to the level of 3,000 kanji, based on the methods of volumes
I
and
II
of
Remembering the Kanji
. The present book is the result of our
combined efforts.
The initial decision to aim at a list of 3,000 characters was not based
on any established measure of “upper-level pro³ciency,” but simply out
of the need for some parameters within which to begin working. As the
selecting of new characters progressed, the decision justi³ed itself and
was left to stand.
The choice of which kanji to include and which to leave out was far
from simple. In 1990 the Ministry of Education published a revised list
of characters for use in names, 284 in all. Kanji from this list that had
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