Remembering the Kanji

一

One

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 is written from left to right.

*As a primitive element, the key-word meaning is discarded, and the single horizontal stroke takes on the meaning of floor or ceiling, depending on its position: if it stands above another primitive, it means ceiling; if below, floor.

ニ

Two

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.

三

Three

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” in order to keep the middle stroke shorter.

四

Four

This character is composed of two primitive elements, mouth S and human legs #, both of which we will meet in the coming lessons. Assuming that you already knew how to write this kanji, we will pass over the “story” connected with it until later.

五

Five

As with four, we shall postpone learning the primitive elements that make up this character.

六

Six

The primitives here are top hat and animal legs. Once again, we glide over them until later.

七

Seven

Note that the first stroke “cuts” through the second. This distinguishes seven from the character for spoon in which the horizontal stroke stops short.

*As a primitive, this form takes on the meaning of diced, i.e., “cut” into little pieces, consistent both with the way the character is written and with its association with the kanji for cut to be learned in a later lesson

八

Eight

Just as the Arabic numeral “8” is composed of a small circle followed by a larger one, so the kanji for eight is composed of a 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 infinite expanse or something “all-encompassing.”

九

Nine

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.

*As a primitive, we shall use this kanji to mean baseball team or simply baseball. The meaning, of course, is derived from the nine players who make up a team.

十

Ten

Turn this character 45º either way and you have the x used for the Roman numeral ten.

*As a primitive, this character sometimes keeps its meaning of ten and sometimes signifies needle, this latter derived from the kanji for needle. 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.

口

Mouth

Like 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.

*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.

日

Day

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 simplest drawings of the sun—like those yellow badges with the words, “Have a nice day!”

*Used as a primitive, this kanji can mean sun or day or a tongue wagging in the mouth. This latter meaning, incidentally, 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

月

Month

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.

*As a primitive element, this character can take on the sense of moon, flesh, or part of the body. The reasons for the latter two meanings will be explained in a later chapter.

田

Rice 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.

*When used as a primitive element, the meaning of rice field is most common, but now and again it will take the meaning of brains from the fact that it looks a bit like that tangle of gray matter nestled under our skulls.

目

Eye

Here 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.

*As a primitive, the kanji keeps its sense of eye, or more specifically, an eyeball. In the surroundings of a complex kanji, the primitive will sometimes be turned on its side.

古

Old

The primitive elements that compose this character are ten and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a pictograph 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 pictograph 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.”

*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.

吾

I

There are actually 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 have 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.

冒

Risk

Remember 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 of folk 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

朋

Companion

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 character says in so many strokes.

明

Bright

Among nature’s bright lights, there are two major examples: the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule the night.

唱

Chant

You have one mouth making no noise (the choirmaster) and two mouths with wagging tongues (the minimum for a chorus). So think of the key word, chant, as a choir singing and the kanji is yours forever

晶

Sparkle

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.

品

Goods

As in the character for sparkle, the triplication of a single element 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 the “masses” of open mouths waiting like µedglings in a nest to “consume” whatever comes their way.

呂

Spine

This character is rather like a picture of two of the vertebrae in the spine linked by a single stroke.

昌

Prosperous

What we mentioned in the previous two frames about 3 of something 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.

早

Early

This kanji is actually a picture of the first flower of the day, which we shall, in defiance of botanical science, call the sunflower, 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

*As a primitive element, this kanji takes the meaning of sunflower, which was used to make the abstract key word early more graphic.

旭

Rising Sun

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 irreverent—but not altogether inaccurate—picture of how the sport has caught on in the Land of the Rising Sun.

世

Generation

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 completed form—not in its stroke order—you will see three tens. When writing it, think of the lower horizontal lines as “addition” 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

胃

Stomach

The elements that make up this character are 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

旦

Nightbreak

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 or the horizon over which the sun is poking its head.

胆

Gall Bladder

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 of this has to do with the gall bladder is not immediately clear. But if we give a slight twist to the traditional 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), the work 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.”

亘

Span

“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.

凹

Concave

You 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 (remembering, of course, that the kanji square off rounded things), complete with its own little “cave.” Now all you have to do is learn how to write it.

凸

Convex

Maybe this helps you see how the Japanese have no trouble keeping convex distinct from concave. Note the odd feeling of the 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.

旧

Olden Times

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 days.” The main thing here is to think of “good old days” when you hear the key word olden times. The rest will take care of itself.

自

Oneself

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 ³nger at their nose— giving us an easy way to remember the kanji for oneself.

*The same meaning of oneself can be kept when this kanji is used as a primitive element, but you will generally ³nd it better to give it the meaning of nose or nostrils, both because it accords with the story above and because it is the ³rst part of the kanji for nose

白

White

The 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.

*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

百

Hundred

The Japanese refer to a person’s 99th birthday as a “white year” because white is the kanji you are left with if you subtract one from a hundred.

中

In

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 something handy, like your grandfather’s walking stick, to pry open your jaws while she performed her duty. Keep the image of getting 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.

千

Thousand

This kanji is almost too simple to pull apart, but for the sake of practice, 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.

舌

Tongue

The primitive for mouth and the character for thousand naturally form the idea of tongue if one thinks of a thousand mouths able to speak the same language, or as we say, “sharing a common 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

升

Measuring 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!

昇

Rise Up

Our image here is made up of two primitive elements: a sun and 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.”

丸

Round

We speak of “round numbers,” or “rounding a number off,” meaning to add an insigni³cant amount to bring it to the nearest 10. For instance, if you add just a wee bit, the tiniest drop, to nine, you end up with a round number.

*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.

寸

Measurement

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 frame 1070). The picture, appropriately, represents one drop of a ten (with a hook!).

*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 primitive will appear so often you would have to struggle hard not to remember it.

専

Specialty

Ten . . . rice fields . . . glue. That is how one would read the primitive elements of this kanji from top to bottom. Now if we make a simple sentence out of these elements, we get: “Ten rice fields glued together.” A specialty, of course, refers to one’s special “field” of endeavor 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 glued together to represent a specialty.

博

Doctor

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 represent 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.

*The primitive form of this kanji eliminates the needle on the left and gets the meaning of an acupuncturist.

占

Fortune Telling

This is one of those kanji that is a real joy of simplicity: first a divining rod, then mouth. This will not always be possible, but where it is, memory has almost no work at all to do.

上

Above

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 primitives 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.

下

Below

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.

卓

Eminent

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).

朝

Morning

On the right we see the moon fading off into the first light of morning, 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.

只

Only

When 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.

貝

Shellfish

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 shell³sh 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 shell³sh with a single, gigantic eye roaming the beaches on its slender little legs, scaring the wits out of the sunbathers.

*When used as a primitive, in addition to shells, the meanings oyster and clam will often come in handy

貞

Upright

Now take the last primitive, the shellfish, and set a magic wand over it, and you have the kanji for upright. After all, the clam and the oyster are incapable of walking upright. It would take a magician with his wand to pull off such a feat—which is precisely what we have in this kanji.

員

Employee

How 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 of³ce building full of whitecollar workers scurrying around with clams pinched to their mouths.

貼

Post a Bill

The key word in this frame has to do wit postnig bills to a billboard. In this case, the billboard is standing at the exit to a Chinese restaurant displaying the latest alternative to the traditional fortune-telling cookies. Look closely and you will see two leftover shells of clams with little slips of paper sticking out of them posted to the billboard.

見

See

The elements that compose the character for see are the eye firmly 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…

児

Newborne

The 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 birthand-death goes on. Incidentally, this is the only time in this book that the kanji for olden times will appear as a primitive element in another kanji, so try to make the most of it.

元

Beginning

“In the beginning…” starts most books on the shelf. It talks about how all things were made, and tells us that when the Creator came to humanity she made two of them, man and woman. While we presume she made two of every other animal as well, we are not told as much. Hence two and a pair of human legs come to mean beginning.

頁

Page

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 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 of nature.

*As a primitive, this kanji takes the unrelated meaning of a head (preferably one detached from its body), derived from the character for head

頑

Stubborn

This character refers to the blockheaded, persistent stubbornness 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 abstract.

凡

Mediocre

While we refer to something insignificant as a “drop in the bucket,” the kanji for mediocre suggests the image of a “drop in the wind.”

負

Defeat

Above we have the condensed form of bound up, and below the familiar shellfish. Now imagine two oysters engaged in shell-toshell combat, the one who is defeated being bound and gagged with seaweed, the victor towering triumphantly over it. The bound shellfish thus becomes the symbol for defeat.

万

Ten Thousand

Japanese counts higher numbers in units of ten thousand, unlike the West, which advances according to units of one thousand. (Thus, for instance, 40,000 would be read “four tenthousands” 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.

句

Phrase

By combining the two primitives bound up and mouth, we can easily see how this character can get the meaning of a phrase. After all, a phrase is nothing more than a number of words bound up tightly and neatly so that they will fit in your mouth.

肌

Texture

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.”)

旬

Decameron

There simply is not a good phrase in English for the block of ten days which this character represents. So we resurrect the classical phrase, decameron, whose connotations the tales of Boccaccio 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.

勺

Ladle

If you want to bind up drops of anything—water, soup, lemonade—you use something to scoop these drops up, which is what we call a ladle. See the last drop left inside the ladle?

的

Bull’s Eye

The elements white bird and ladle easily suggest the image of a bull’s eye if you imagine a rusty old ladle with a bull’s eye painted on it in the form of a tiny white bird, who lets out a little “peep” every time you hit the target.

首

Neck

Reading this kanji from the top down, we have: horns . . . nose. Together they bring to mind the picture of a moose-head hanging 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 hanging 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.

乙

Fish Guts

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 meanings are “pure,” “tasteful,” “quaint,” and—get this!—fish guts. Since it is a pictograph of a fishhook, let us take this last as the key-word meaning.

*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. And when it appears to the right of another element, 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

乱

Riot

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.

直

Straightaway

Begin 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.

具

Tool

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.

真

True

Here 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.

工

Craft

The pictograph of an I beam, like the kind used in heavy construction work, gives us the character for craft in general.

*As a primitive element, the key word retains the meaning of craft and also takes on the related meanings of I beam and arti³cial.

肘

Elbow

Instead of the familiar “grease” we usually associate with the elbow of someone hard at work, the kanji give us a prt of the body that has been glued to its task.

嘲

Derision

The bad feeling created by words spoken ini derision of leaves a ba tastte in the mouth of te one who speaks them, kind of like the foul aftertaste that follows a night before of too much of the wrong stuff - or what we call morning mouth.

唄

Pop Song

There is a lot of money to be made if one’s songs are “popular.” This is depicted here as a stream of clams spewing out of the mouth of someone performing a pop song.

左

Left

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.

右

Right

When thinking of the key word right, in order to avoid confusion with the previous frame, take advantage of the doublemeaning here, too. Imagine a little mouth hanging down by your side—like a little voice of conscience—telling you the right thing to do. Here the second stroke should reach out to the right and be drawn slightly longer than the first.

有

Possess

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’s side until it begins to putrefy and stink so bad that the demon departs. Take careful note of the stroke order.

賄

Bribe

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.

貢

Tribute

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.

項

Paragraph

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 “heading craft” to remember this character.

刀

Sword

Although this character no longer looks very much like a sword, it does have some resemblance to the handle of the sword. As it turns out, this is to our advantage, in that it helps us keep distinct two primitive elements based on this character.

*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 and takes the sense of a great and flashing saber, a meaning it gets from a character we shall learn later.

刃

Blade

Think 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?

切

Cut

To the right we see the dagger and next to it the number seven whose primitive meaning we decided would be diced. It is hard to think of cutting anything with a knife without imagining one of those skillful Japanese chefs. Only let us say that he has had too much to drink at a party, grabs a dagger lying on the mantelpiece and starts dicing up everything in sight, starting with the hors d’oeuvres and going on to the furniture and the carpets….

召

Seduce

A 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 ³t 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.)

*The primitive meaning remains the same: seduce. Just be sure to associate it with a very concrete image.

昭

Shining

Let the key word suggest shining one’s shoes, the purpose of which is to seduce the sun down on them for all to see.

則

Rule

The character depicts a clam alongside a great and µashing 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 carefully notched like a yardstick, crack open a clam and then measure the poor little beastie to see if it is as long as the rules say it has to be.

副

Vice - (Second in Command)

The key word vice- has the sense of someone second-in-command. The great and flashing saber to the right (its usual location, so you need not worry about where to put it from now on) and the wealth on the left combine to create an image of dividing one’s property to give a share to one’s vice-wealthholder.

別

Seperate

In the Old East, the samurai and his saber were never separated. 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.

丁

Street

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.

*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 happen, 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.

町

Village

Street 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.)

可

Can

Remember the story about the “Little Engine that Could” when you hear this key word, and the rest is simple. See the determined 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.

頂

Nail 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 nail on 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, and 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.

子

Child

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.

*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.

孔

Cavity

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 syllables get associated with the drill and that row of shiny hooks the dentist uses to torture people who are too small to fight back.