Kanji is the hardest part of Japanese. Even harder than the particles, if you ask me. How do you know whether the kanji is on-yomi or kun-yomi? How do you keep straight kanji that look super similar? What do they even MEAN?! Why are there SO MANYYYY?!
Excuse me while I scream into the void
There are some kanji that have no rhyme or reason to their reading or meaning. But there are actually many meaning-based and pronunciation-based patterns hidden within kanji, and if you can unlock them, your life will be 100 times easier.
So in today’s segment, I thought I’d introduce one radical and common kanji that contain it. This list is not exhaustive, but I made a list of all the kanji with the radical that I could think of off the top of my head.
Our radical for this episode is:
金
As a standalone kanji, it means “gold.” But as a radical, it means “metal.” Radicals tend to either provide a clue to the kanji’s pronunciation or its meaning. The metal radical almost always provides a clue to the meaning and has no bearing on pronunciation.
金
JLPT Level: N5
Meaning: gold
On-yomi: kin, kon, gon
Kun-yomi: kane, kana-, -gane
銀
JLPT Level: N4
Meaning: silver
On-yomi: gin
Kun-yomi: shirogane (lit. “white gold”)
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is a simplification of 良, which means “good.” Remember that silver is the “good gold.”
Note: The kun-yomi “shirogane” is almost never used.
針
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: needle, pin, staple, stinger
On-yomi: shin
Kun-yomi: hari
Tricks to remember it: The cross radical on the right looks like a needle!
鈍
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: dull, slow, foolish, blunt
On-yomi: don
Kun-yomi: nibu.i, nibu.ru, nama.ru, namaku.ra
Tricks to remember it: …sorry, I got nothing.
鉄
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: iron
On-yomi: tetsu
Kun-yomi: kurogane (lit. “black gold”)
Tricks to remember it: The radical in the right is an arrow. Remember that arrow tips were made with iron.
Note: The kun-yomi “kurogane” is almost never used.
Tricks to remember it: …sorry, I got nothing again.
銅
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: Copper, bronze
On-yomi: dou
Kun-yomi: akagane (lit. “red gold”)
Tricks to remember it: the radical on the right is actually the kanji 同 (same, identical), so you can think that “copper and bronze are the same.”
Note: The kun-yomi “akagane” is almost never used.
釣
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: angling, fishing, catch, allure, ensnare
On-yomi: chou
Kun-yomi: tsu.ru, tsu.ri
Tricks to remember it: the radical on the right is curved like a fishing hook.
鉛
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: lead (the metal)
On-yomi: en
Kun-yomi: namari
Tricks to remember it: The two radicals on the right are 八 (eight) and 口 (mouth). If you put lead in your mouth eight times, you’re gonna regret it.
Note: Unlike the other metals I introduced above, the kun-yomi is used most frequently to refer to lead.
銭
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: coin, .01 yen, money
On-yomi: sen, zen
Kun-yomi: zeni, suki
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right kinda looks like the kanji 残 nokoru, which means “to remain, to be left over.” Since zeni means “a small amount of money,” you can remember it as “the money you have left over after buying something.”
鈴
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: small bell, buzzer
On-yomi: rei, rin
Kun-yomi: suzu
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right, 令 means “command,” and you usually put a bell on the animals that you command.
Note: “Suzu” is also the name for “tin” because bells were often made of tin. The kanji for tin is 錫, but it is pretty low frequency.
鎌
JLPT Level: N1 (I literally cannot believe this is on the JLPT????)
Meaning: Sickle, scythe, trick
On-yomi: ren, ken
Kun-yomi: kama
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 兼 (beforehand, in advance). Ready your scythe before the harvest!
鏡
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: mirror, speculum
On-yomi: kyou, kei
Kun-yomi: kagami
Tricks to remember it: the two radicals on the right are 立 (stand) and 見 (look). In olden days, mirrors were made not of glass but of polished metal (usually copper or bronze). So a mirror is a piece of metal (金) that you stand (立) in front of and look (見) into.
鋼
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: Steel
On-yomi: Kou
Kun-yomi: Hagane
Tricks to remember it: Hmmm. I got nothing. Just remember our favorite 鋼の錬金術師 (Hagane no Rinkinjutsu-shi), Edward Elric.
Note: “Hagane” is used most frequently to refer to this metal.
鍛
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: forge, discipline, train
On-yomi: tan
Kun-yomi: kita.eru
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 段 (grade, stairs). When you train yourself, your progress occurs in steps.
鎖
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: chains, iron, connection
On-yomi: sa
Kun-yomi: kusari, toza.su
Tricks to remember it: Hmm… Any ideas?
鍋
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: pot, pan, kettle
On-yomi: ka
Kun-yomi: nabe
Tricks to remember it: The right half looks like a bunch of pots stacked up on each other.
釘
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: nail, tack, peg
On-yomi: tei, chou
Kun-yomi: kugi
Tricks to remember it: The 丁 on the right looks like a nail with a bent tip!
鎧
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: armor, put on armor, arm oneself
On-yomi: kai, gai
Kun-yomi: yoroi, yoro.u
Tricks to remember it: The right half of it kinda looks like a suit of armor, right? The 山 on top is the helmet, and the 豆 beneath it is the torso and legs standing on the ground!
釦
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: button
On-yomi: kou, ku
Kun-yomi: botan
Tricks to remember: the 口 on the right looks like a button!
Note: This kanji is almost never used, but you can see it on the emergency stop button for escalators sometimes.
鍵
JLPT Level: Unlisted (…but freaking SCYTHE is on the JLPT???)
Meaning: Key
On-yomi: ken
Kun-yomi: kagi
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 建 (build), and you often need a key to enter a building.
釜
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: kettle, cauldron, iron pot
On-yomi: fu
Kun-yomi: kama
Tricks to remember it: Hmm….I got nothing.The top radical is 父 (father), so maybe…Dad’s job is to tend to the kettle?
末Remember these as a set: The tree (木) has not yet (未) reached theextremity (末) of its vermilion (朱) foliage. The tree has reached the extremity of its growth and no longer produces small, new branches at the top. Instead the existing top branch just grows longer and longer. The tree’s top branches have grown to extremities. {be careful末looks just like未}
昧Something that is obscure has not yet been brought before the light ofday.
味My mouth has not yet swallowed the food because the flavor is so delicious that I keep chewing it. 味 = あじ = flavour 美味しい = おいしい = beautiful flavor = delicious. [ flavor = mouth + not yet ] - the pastry chef, after testing the flavor by putting a small sample in his mouth, declared that the confection was not yet ready.
妹My younger sister is NOT YET a fully grown WOMAN.
沫SPLASH = water being scattered to the extreme
朱It’s autumn: only one vermilion leaf on the tree has not yet fallen. I’ll try dropping by the Cerulean gym, as I'm not yet able to enter Vermilion City.
株Ideally, one buys stocks when a company is young, “green,” and rapidly growing – then sells them just before the last vermillion leaf falls off, and a period of dormancy or limited growth begins. Instead of thinking of the stock-market, imagine the wooden medieval stocks used to hold a prisoner’s head and hands between two blocks of wood. The wood in this case is vermilion colored, as it often was. Imagine SHOOING away the guards and blowing the stocks open with a big “kaboom” sound. (ON reading SHU, Kun reading kabu).
若Young love puts a flower in her right hand (true love puts a ring on her left!!). Young single women in Hawaii wear a FLOWER over their RIGHT ear signifying they are available. Wakai.
草My Dad said “Cut thegrassearly, and watch out for the FLOWERS!!!
苦Flowers for the old mansuffering in the hospital
苛In a perfect world, giving someone flowerscan stop them bullying you. But most likely he will stuff the flowers in you because he can.
寛 Kanji Zen: See the flowers in the house. See the good in people. Be TOLERANT.
薄Oh no! The doctor forgot his needle at home, so he can only treat his patients with a dilutedherbal remedy! { After the —, complete 日 first, then | and then the ’, lastly followed by寸. Most Japanese do not know how to write these three Kanji correctly so here’s your chance to really impress them.}
葉The flowergeneration were leaf smoking tree-huggers.
模You try to sell meimitation WOOD again, and I’ll put you in the GRAVEYARD
漠Vague, vague, watery grave. (Repeat this phrase several times).
墓In the cemetery, graves are marked with a cross in the soil.
暮Before you complain about your livelihood, think about spending your days in a graveyard. I work GRAVEYARD shift and an all DAY shift for my LIVELIHOOD. Hey, its a living…
膜Flesh eating zombies rising from the graveyard to eat your membranes in the moonlight
苗If you plant seedlings in a FIELD eventually they will FLOWER. When i was a keep i was told not to swallow seedlings or flowers will sprout out of my brain!
Lesson 11
兆A bad omen/portent, makes the hairs on your legs stand up. A cracked turtle shell is a portent or omen that Mario has been, and will continue to be, jumping on Koopas as he goes to save Peach from Bowser. Think of this as Bowser, but also keep Peach in mind for the next one.
桃Princess Peach is up a tree, Bowser is try to climb it to get her. The pits of a peach tree look like turtles.
眺With fire in his eyes, Bowser is staring at you, ready to attack. Better run before he puts everything else on fire, too. Don’t STARE at me with your EYE, you evil TURTLE!
犬A large dog, dripping drool.
状Who controls the status quo? Politicians, because they are as slow asturtles and as dumb as dogs. The status quo is controlled by the big dogs.
黙Want silence? Throw your noisy black chihuahua in the fire for good. The basement fire burned the computer AND the dog. Now there is onlySILENCE where the house once stood.
然Flesh of a dog roasting over a fire. They actually eat that sort of thing in some countries. Flesh of a dog over a cooking fire = "hotdog”. There are all sorts of things in hot dogs. Believe me, you don’t want to know what sort of things . Visualize the hotdog curling as it cooks, to remember the unusual way the flesh primitive curves in this kanji.
荻A reed is a flower that looks like a hot dog. Reeds are a type of flower that can be used as a Snorkle, hiding in the swamp till danger has passed. This is especially useful when hiding from aPack of Wild dogs and forest fires.
狩In every prison escape movie, the hunt for the escapees involves a pack of WILD DOGS unleashed by the GUARDS.
猫The crafty cat hid from the pack of dogs among the seedlings in the flowery field
牛A cow bleeds vermilion when you cut off two of it’s legs.
特Cows are onspecial at the temple!
告The revelation makes the cow’s mouth drop down, “Hamburgers are made of what?!” In ancient times, the words from a primitive cow’s mouth were considered a REVELATION because they were the “udder truth.”.
先 Remember before sounds like “beef or”. Before this cow sat on my legs I was doing fine! This is me in my “before” picture. I look like a cow with human legs.
洗 In Japan, you always wash with water from the shower before you enter the bathtub. You need waterbefore you can wash.
完The house of Adam and eve was perfect in the beginning.
宣You can proclaim your opinions from the comfort of your HOUSE and have it SPAN the entire globe these days via The Internet. Parents proclaim: “In the span of time you’re under our roof you’ll abide by our rules.”.
宵After practicing kanji in the wee hours of your home, kanji start resembling one another.
安Cheapest place for a woman to relax is in her own home.
宴An entire day of work for the banquet stands between the woman and the relaxation in her house.
寄The strange house has a sign saying “DRAW NEAR” in its window, instead of a ‘Beware’ sign. It must be a trick! Why in all horror movies, the actors are always drawn near the strange house, where they’ll soon die?
富In ancient Japan, a RICE FIELD is a unit of wealth as it can produce enough to feed all the MOUTHs in ONE HOUSE. Remember Ducktales? That rich duck had that room in his house where he kept all the wealth! He had so much in that house you could even swim in it!
貯savings = money kept under the roof rather than spent on the street.
Lesson 10 (Part 1)
木Pictograph of a tree.
林A grove has at least two TREEs.
森Many Trees make a forest.
桂TheJapanese Judas Tree, with Ivy hanging in nooses, it is where the betrayed will be hanged by Judas. A tree covered in poison ivy will quickly betray you, thus the name JAPANESE JUDAS-TREE.
柏An oaktree is what Gandalf the White made his staff from. Professor Oak, the Pokémon scientist with the white coat, was named after the oaktree.
枠Nine out of ten picture frames are made out of wood. The rest are made of metal or plastic.
梢If you cut off the treetops, they still resemble the trees they used to be part of. Treetops=treeresemblance. This also means the end of a branch or twig. In English, the name for each year’s new growth at the end of every branch is a “candle”. Same in Japanese.
棚A shelf is a wooden companion to books.
杏I lay under the apricottree and let the delicious apricots drop into my mouth. “apri-caught”
桐In Japan, a paulownia (きり）is known as the “princess tree”. It was once a traditional TREE planted at the SAME time as the birth of a daughter. It would grow fast enough that, at the time of her wedding, it could be used to make a dresser as a wedding present for her.
植Plant the tree straight away.
椅To the Japanese, the first time they saw a chair, it looked like a strangeuse of wood! Probably why they still like to sit on the floor…
枯. When a tree gets old it withers. The Great Deku TREE withered and died once it was cursed with OLD, dark magic.
朴A beginner magician starts with a crudewooden magic wand. Later he’ll upgrade.
村If you’ve ever played an old 8 bit or 16 bit RPG, you’ll remember that every town was all bordered off by a line of trees with no space in between to get out through. Imagine that the trees were glued together so you could only exit townthrough the main or side gates, (so you couldn’t escape the important scripted scenes.).
相The biblical proverb about maintaining good inter-personal relationships says to first take the plank of wood out of your own eye, before removing the splinter from your brother's eye. The Ent, minister of trees, watches over the interactions of different creatures in Middle Earth.
机The tree was knocked down by the wind. Now I can carve it into a desk! Ancient Japanese used to use tree stumps as desk where wind was a constant battle. A tree paperweight on the desk, will prevent the windfrom blowing the papers away.
本The origin of a book is paper made out of TREEs. ONE tree can make many books.
札Someone put a tag on that tree with a hook. Oh, hey, it’s actually paper money! Don’t mind if I do….
暦This is just a picture of a wall calendar with a page for each month. The bottom half has the grid of days, the top half has a pretty picture of a forest this month. The cliff radical here is the top and left edges of the paper. You can see the paper curling up at the lower left where a breeze is trying to turn the page. I love those nature CALENDARs with all the photos of cliffs and treesand the setting sun.Bottom of FormBottom of Form
案As long as you have a plan, you can relax on trees as much as you like. Just RELAX! And stay in the TREE. Everything is going according to the PLAN!
燥A fire’s heat willparch/dry out any goods made from wood.You need to leave milk out for Santa. If not, he will be so parched when he comes down the FIRE place that he will put the GOODS on top of the TREE!
未This TREE is not yet fully grown: it’s only ONE year old.
涯Japan is a mountainous archipelago. When looking off into the horizonone can only see water, cliffs, and more land.
寺It is ironic that the kanji for Buddhist temple is composed by two elements Buddhism is meant to alleviate: earthliness and attachment.
時In ancient Japan, TIME of “day” was announced at the “Buddhist temples”. They did this by ringing large iron bells. This is similar to churches who ring their bells to announce the time of day.
均soilequally spread with a ladle provides level ground. 匀 = equal, 勺 = ladle.
火To be honest, it just looks like the flames of a fire to me. Looks like a camp fire actually.
炎An inflammation can often feel like FIRE upon FIRE burning. To fight fire with fire would just inflame a situation.
煩Imagine the anxiety a librarian would feel if the library caught fire and all the pages of his books were burning up. ANXIETY is like a slow-burning fire inside your head.
淡Drink water and burn twice as many calories as you eat… you’ll definitely get thin. Imagine inside your body, all those calories literally being burned from above and below… THAT’s what it takes to become thin. To stay thin, you need to drink lots of water and burn off calories.
灯A lamp is fire you can hang from a nail.
畑In Japan, ricefarmers are constantly making little fires on their ricefarms burning up all the old stalks and things probably to be used as fertilizer
災What a disaster! First a FIRE, then on top of it came FLOODs.
灰After the cremation fire, many prefer to scatter their loved-one’s ASHESfrom seaside cliffs.
点The FORTUNE TELLER was burned by FLAMES on the spot because she was accused of being a witch.
照A night scene: The hunters faces were shining, illuminated by the flickering camp fire. Alternate story: Though the sun is shining brightly, it will not illuminate the depths of a dark cavern; for that you need a fire.
魚Fish dinner tonight: Step one bind up a fish on a rod. step two chop off the brains and scales. step three roast it on an open fire and step four enjoy.
漁You need WATER and FISH for fishing.
Lesson 9
里 This kanji means ri. Don’t bother looking it up in your English dictionary; it’s a Japanese word for measuring distances. One riis 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. The four sections you see in the rice field 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 landdivision based on the size of a rice field is called a ri.
黒If you burn the GROUND of a RICE FIELD with FIRE, eventually it will turn black. If your computer isn’t on a firewall, you’ll get a virus and your screen will go black.
墨Black ink comes from blacksoil.
鯉Robocarp!!! Part fish, part computer! Visualize him flapping and clanking down the street, with bullets ricocheting off his scaly armor. What does a Fish get when it uses a computer? … CARP-al tunnel! A carp is very clever, it’s a fish first and a computer second. If you are Japanese, fish in the pond near your parents’ house are most likely to be carp (koi, in fact).
量A quantity can be a measure of time or space (day/ri). At night break a larger quantity of people log onto their computers.
厘 RIN Another Japanese only word. The Square Root of 1 RI = 1 RIN just kidding. But it looks like it. Actually One rinis 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.”
埋In China, they BURY someone under the GROUND, one RI outside the village. When your computer becomes old, there’s not much you can do but buryit under the soil and buy a new one. As the world moves on, we have to bury the old logic under the groundand keep up with the times.
同Monks speak in one voice (mouth) under a hood to say we are all the SAME.
洞Animals always build their den in the same place - beside the water.
胴The trunk of your body looks the same as most people’s, once you chop the limbs off.
向Yonder….there is a DOT of light over the mouth of the cave.
尚We are created the SAME but it’s our SPARK of uniqueness that gives us our self ESTEEM.
字The first kanjicharacters you will learn in Japan is probably learnt at home (in the house of your family) when you are still a child.
守 A GUARD is usually “glued” to the house he watches. A guard gives those under a roof a measure of security.
川Three streams grouped together might cause a flood! Please note: the Japanese do not use this as stream, they use it as river. It might be better to differentiate by thinking of river for this one and big river or major river for 河 川 is used for the names of Japanese rivers and places (ie. Xgawa Highschool). 河 is used for some foreign rivers and metaphorically (ie. 銀河 [ginga]: Silver River — Milky Way / Galaxy).
州All powerfulSTATES grew from a few small settlements along RIVER. The original meaning of this character was “sandbar”, and for me this conjures up images of the Mississippi River, which is very wide with many sandbars and which was used to define the borders in ten American states. Picture Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer floating bystate afterstateas they adventure down the mighty Mississippi, occasionally beaching their raft on sandbars.
順In Japan, obeying means following the stream of collective opinion BEFORE using your own head. “Obey!” demands Fox News' streaming page as they fill your head with lies.
水water falls and splashes. the frequency of this primitive won’t let you forget the meaning: water. No need for a story. Its everywhere: anime, water bottles etc.
氷Icicles start with 1 frozen drop of water.
永It would take an eternity to count all the drops of water. If time were water, this moment is just a drop in eternity.
泉A spring is where pure whitewater comes from. Not the Spring season.
腺On a hot day sweat SPRINGs forth from my glands.
原Heisig calls this kanjimeadow but used in compound words the most common meaning is ORIGIN… For those of you who can’t decide whether to stick to meadow or go for origin, here’s both. Imagine a meadow that is shaded by a cliff being the origin of a special type of white flower that can grow in a very smallnumber of places.
願Send your petition to the head manager of the white meadows apartment complex. Let’s petition to save that beautiful MEADOW from overdevelopment by signing on this PAGE.
泳Remember the movie water world? Imagine if you were in that movie and had no boat! You’d literally be swimming for an eternity as you are surrounded by endless, eternal, water.
沼The marsh looks just like dry land. Really it's water and it seducespeople to step onto it and they sink to their death.
沖When you are on the OPEN SEA, you are completely in the middle of the water.
汎This is pan- as in the prefix meaning “all”. I think of Pangea as being a mediocre continent with water covering the rest of the planet. This was before it broke up into the first-class, well-distributed continents we got now. In Pantheism, even little drops of water are not considered mediocre.
江Creeks, inlets, bays and so on are examples of water that have been crafted for some purpose or another.
汰Remember Chihiro (Spirited Away): The water spirit was so plump from dirt he needed to cleanse.
汁A really good soup starts with stock – just use water, and ten flavoring ingredients.
沙Each water wave washes away a few grains of sand. To keep this separated from sand砂:Water erodes away stone a fewgrains of sand at a time until there is no stone left.
潮If it’s not Eventide (汐) it must be morningtide! The morning tide is basically, well, WATER in the MORNING.
源The source of our village's water is the magic meadow deep in the enchanted mountains. There, there is a white-water spring bubbling up at the base of a cliff.
活Some water on the tongue makes a dehydrated person lively.
消To extinguish fire, use water or something resembling it.
況If your teenager keeps to drinking water (rather than anything stronger), it prevents a bad situation developing. (This character means “situation” or “condition”.).
河Artificial river - water from a can. Natural running water comes in many sizes: brooks, streams, rivulets… But a RIVER is one such with enough WATER that we CAN do useful stuff with it: move wheels and turbines and transport loads. In short, a RIVER is running WATER that CAN.
泊Overnight water white (it rhymes). The water is white because it froze overnight.
湖Water-old-month: the lake‘s water is old in the sense that it has accumulated there over the course of many months.
測Fathoms beneath the water, a shellfish defends the depths with his sabre.
土The grave was marked by a cross sticking out of the soil.
吐When you get dirt in your mouth, you have to spit it out.
圧The cliff exerts a lot of pressure on the ground beneath it.
埼This refers to LAND, not the STRANGE gear superheroes wear. A CAPE is a piece of LAND that stands out STRANGLY in the sea.
垣Thehedge SPANS the castle GROUNDS. The kanji also means a fence. Think of a dirt wall that spans your property. 石垣 = いしがき = stone wall.
填In a hole in the ground, the body of the victim was placed. And then the killer stuffed it up so that the truth would not be found out, he hoped.
圭Square jewels are made by piling soil on top of soil for millions of years until square jewels are formed. The pirate wanted to hide his square jewel well. So, he buried it in thesoil, under the ground and planted poison ivy over the spot.
封The jewel is measured and given a SEAL of approval.
Too many to do in one day…so part 2 of lesson 8 tomorrow. zzzzz
子 A child, from one to ten, before becoming a teen.
孔 Gotta check your child for cavities, so the dentist will use his/her dental explorer (hook).
了 This child is not complete…
女 When a woman becomes a ninja she is called a kunoichi (くノ一).
好Women are fond of children.
如A woman sees her likeness in the mirror. (pictogram).
母When a woman becomes a mama her breasts grow and fill with drops of milk.
貫Shepierced her ear with a mama of pearl (shellfish).
兄My elder brother is just a big mouth on legs. He has freedom to speak and freedom to go out.
呪Caution: this means a spell, not to swear. I put a curse on my elder brother so that he can never open his mouth.
克Ten teenagers were chosen to OVERCOME all odds and save the world. The start of almost every JRPG.
小LITTLE baby penguin flippers.
少Little!, few!, what’s the difference? Few sounds like you are getting a dash more
大That guy was thiiiiis BIG! That is ONE largeperson!
多Two MOONs, or two EVENINGs? In either case, it’s “two” many.
夕 I’m home for the evening. ただいま!
汐In the eventide (nightfall), drops of water start forming in the evening.
外It’s dangerous to go (outside) alone (in the evening)! Here, take this (stick)! /Zelda.
名Because it’s dark in the evening, you need to open your mouth and speak your name to identify yourself. (This is a traditional mnemonic for this kanji).
石Indiana Jones jumps up and grabs the lip of cliff just in time to evade the huge STONE rolling out of the mouth of the cave!
肖This kanji has a resemblance to a dripping birthday cake with 3 candles. Little Chibi Moon has a RESEMBLANCE of Sailor Moon.
硝Nitrate, or saltpeter, comes from rocks 石 and is an ingredient in fireworks, like roman candles 肖. (cf 砲, cannon.) 硝煙 shouen, gunpowder smoke.
砕When Hulk SMASH nine becomes ten/ A stone will smash a car-window nine times out of ten.
砂To make sand, start by grinding a few stones.
妬 The jealouswoman bashed the brains in of the guy who betrayed her, with a stone.
削THIS means :to sharpen a pencil, or carve wood. Sparks will fly if you attempt to PLANE your sabre. This is not an airplane.
光Rays are just littlelegs of sunlight.
太Take large, and add a drop of fat, and you get PLUMP.
器Imagine four hungry mouths all sitting around the table. They are all banging their utensils on the table waiting for a big meal to be placed in the center. Note: 器 by itself means container/caliber/vessel. And 食器 means eating utensils (“food container”).
臭If oneself allows a large amount of time between showers he ends upstinking.
嗅Your mouth stinks: you need to sniff your breath.
妙A geisha is an exquisite and delicate (another meaning of this kanji) women, however, even in the past there was only few of them.
省To remember the order: When focusing, keep a few things your TOP priority, so only they come UNDER your sight. You focus by concentrating your eye on fewer objects.
厚 In Sparta we throw our Children over a Cliff. Under the Sun, they fight other Children. In the end, if they survive, they sure have thick skin.
奇A man in a trash can is very strange.
Felt like timing myself today: This lesson took me 90 minutes while snacking
乙FISHGUTS: This is a fish hook that pulls out fish guts. “FishgutZ by Zorro” [fishhook]
乱RIOT: Riots are caused by silver tongued leaders who hook the public
直STRAIGHT AWAY: Need to go to the hospital right away if you get a needle in your eye
具TOOL: keep an eye on the table when using sharp tools
真TRUE: Kid tool to measure the truth: cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye, 10 eye witnesses help determine the truth.
工 [CRAFT]: I craft in World of Warcarft. I beams are used to craft skyscrapers, [craft, I beam, artificial]
左LEFT: looks like L for left
右RIGHT: The voice that tells you right from wrong
有POSSESS: Werewolves are possessed by the moon. My closest possession is my body.
賄:BRIBE: when people use money (clams) to get possessions - that a bribe
貢TRIBUTE: I volunteer as tribute” said no shellfish (money man) ever. Tributes aka taxes are craft ways to get clams (money)
項PARAGRAPH: Paragraph=paracraft=page+craft. Crafting a page with paragraphs.
刀 [SWORD]: sharp sword cut of “ka” from katana. Samurai have 2 swords on their belt. Slice pie with a sword.
刃BLADE: see the blood on my blade
切CUT: 7 samurai cut 7 opponents
召[SEDUCE]: samurai seduced her with his shiny sword and sweet talking lips/ (also means to call to send for) Lion-o summons Thundercats with his word and shouting “Ho!”
昭SHINING: The shining sun seduced poor Icarus. One day a knight in shining and seduced her with his lips and sword.
則RULE: Those with money and sword make the rules
副VICE-: Shogun’s second in command handles wages. One mouth controls the rice field to pay for swords (samurai)
別SEPERATE: looks like a praying mantis…female mantis uses a saber to separate her husband’s body from his head
丁STREET: sTreeT has 2 Ts
町VILLAGE: village (town) has lots of streets and rice field
可CAN: I can speak street
頂 PLACE ON THE HEAD: There is a bounty on my head. See the pages on the street with my face?
Non-Kanji parts:
Fishhook:乙, when at the bottom 乚, 乱 Fishhook too the (right)
tool 具 *see the table with the tools on top*
by ones side (example):右 左 the cross looking thing on the left
旧OLDEN TIMES: once you pass 18 (see the picture) you are old. Old people (the walking stick) talk about the good old days
自ONESELF: point at self towards the nose between the eyes is the way Japanese people point at themselves. Eye drops are best applied by oneself.
白WHITE: a drop of sunlight is white
百HUNDRED: looks like 100 turned sideways. 100-1=99. Japanese people celebrate white year when 99yrs old.
中IN: in between the box
千THOUSAND: 10 bought a fancy hat for 1000 yen. A drop of magic makes 10 become 1000
舌TONGUE: in your mouth is 1000 taste buds
升MEASURINGBOX: is it 1000 or 10? I need a measuring box
昇RISE UP: Measure the sun to decided when we should rise up
丸 ROUND: Round up 9 to 10
寸MEASUREMENT: decimal system uses drops of 10 as a measurement
専SPECIALTY: specialty or field may change 10 times before sticking to what they like to measure up how good you are
博DR: needle specialist is a doctor in acupuncture. after 10 specialties you should be a doctor. A dr. with a dot.
占FORTUNETELLING: magic rod with a mouth
上ABOVE: pointing up
下BELOW: pointing down
卓EMINENT: eminent means a famous and respected person within a particular sphere or profession. most eminent magicians is one who learned to use his magic wand early in life
朝MORNING: 10am is opposite of 10pm at night
只ONLY: it has a big mouth and tiny legs its one of a king. The only one left; only one mouth per 2 legs
貝SHELLFISH: the beach has a freakish shellfish with a giant eye and slender legs [with shell=oyster/clam]
貞UPRIGHT: it’s only with magic can a clam/shellfish walk upright
員EMPLOYEE: shut your mouth at work to keep your job put clams on your lips
見SEE: I see better when I walk up close to it
児NEWBORNBABE: Father time with a crawling baby (the circle of life) In olden times babies came between the legs now we have c-section
元BEGINNING: 2 humans were made in the beginning
頁PAGE:A drop of shellfish ink can fill a page. A pearl of wisdom on one page
頑STUBBORN: Genesis has Cain and able in their ways. Some are too stubborn to read the first page.
凡 MEDIOCRE: A drop in the wind makes no difference. Mediocre people hide under tables.
負DEFEAT: Shell to shell combat; shellfish are defeated with a hook in its head
万TENTHOUSAND: It’s over 9000!
句PHRASE: Words bound up right to fit into mouth
肌TEXTURE: Body parts exposed to wing changes texture especially after a month straight bound up days
旬DECAMERON: bound up for days, 10 days (decameron is a 10 day period)
勺LADLE: Bound up every last drip of soup
的BULL’S EYE: use ladle to paint white part of the bull’s eye
