Questions tagged [kanji]
漢字. Chinese characters as used in Japanese writing as opposed to the two kana syllabaries and rōmaji (Latin letters).
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244 views
Morning, Afternoon, Night Kanji
Learning the time of day I found that 朝 or あさ means morning, 昼 or ひる means afternoon, and 晚 I expected to be night but Google translate is saying it's moth for some reason. Does this 晚 only mean night ...
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1answer
158 views
Having Trouble Identifying This Character (or Characters?)
I've been staring at this part of a section I'm trying to read, and it's the latter part that has me thoroughly stumped:
While I can suss out the first two characters (pretty sure it's "倒壊"), I can't ...
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1answer
94 views
How to read the names 勲 and 房子 [on hold]
Do any of you know which names these 2 kanji are in rōmaji?
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93 views
Nuance differences between the kanji for ぐあい, 具合 and 工合
Usually I read ぐあい as 具合 but recently I was reading a some Japanese literature and the 工合 version of the kanji was used.
For reference the literature:
脳味噌の中心にヒリヒリと焦げ付く位である。それでいて、あとから考えるとその興味の焦点と、...
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2answers
141 views
Unable to identify a semi-cursive? Kanji
A friend and I are studying and she showed me this book she couldn't tell what the kanji was after ヒト. We were able to decipher two out of 3 kanji 関わる and 見る (unless we're wrong do correct us).
...
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1answer
227 views
How difficult is the 万葉集 to read?
From my understanding, the 万葉集 is written in 万葉仮名 which uses a limited set of characters solely for their 音読み reading rather than for their semantic meaning.
In light of this, I am curious how ...
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2answers
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How obscure is the use of 令 in 令和?
I actually like the new 年号 kanji 令和, but I must admit I was surprised by the choice of 令. According to this article in the Japan Times,
The new era name is composed of two Chinese characters — “...
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1answer
2k views
What will the new character ⿰令和 look like?
On the Wikipedia page for the Reiwa period there's a section:
Implementation
The Unicode Consortium has already reserved a code point (U+32FF) for a new glyph which will combine halfwidth ...
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2answers
265 views
Unknown Kanji on Mountain Rock
I've been studying Japanese for about 3 years, passed N1 last December (was not expecting that) and wanted to brush off one of the biggest questions I've ever had on Kanji (bugging me for about 2 of ...
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6answers
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Is exact Kanji stroke length important?
Context:
I am currently on a quest to learn how to hand write the 2000 most commonly used Kanji. This requires lots of memorization, so efficiency is important.
I have come across Kanji that have ...
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1answer
67 views
Literary work using all (or most) of 常用漢字
In the last half a century or so, has anyone ever tried to write a literary text in Japanese that would cover all (or most) of 常用漢字?
I'm looking for something along the lines of the Thousand ...
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1answer
185 views
How to read this sign and what it means?
A friend sent a picture he received from another friend of this framed parchment with some very flowery and old looking Japanese written on it asking me if I could read it and if I knew what it meant:
...
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0answers
182 views
A name for common words that use uncommon kanji?
I didn't see a duplicate for this in the similar questions, so here goes. Is there either a list of words like this, or a name for this type of word (made of two very rare/complex kanji, but the word ...
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1answer
137 views
What are the nuances between the use of 訊く instead of 聞く in the following sentence?
I know that 訊く is another way to write 聞く, so now I'm curious as to why the author of the book used it here instead of 聞く, which has been used for all previous instances in the book.
こちらから訊くより先に、...
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1answer
189 views
What is the etymology of the kanji 寺?
This kanji has : -
止(phonetic) + 寸(hand : semantic) and the 止 part became 土 later
But I found in some resources this interpretations which explain "止" function in the kanji so I wanna know which on ...
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2answers
174 views
What does 分 means in “国分寺”?
As i found in jisho dictionary here
https://jisho.org/search/%23kanji%20寺
This word "国分寺" means "state-supported provincial temple"
国 means "state or region" and i understand why it is in the ...
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1answer
163 views
Question about kanji 分?
As we know this kanji means "divide / part / minute / understand" and many other meanings but these are the main meanings .. and I can understand the first two because they are related to the ...
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0answers
109 views
How does “ 一切” mean all/entire?
This word contains 一 "one" plus 切 "to cut" .. so how would this mean all/entire? ...
I searched before coming here and found something https://kanjiportraits.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/the-kanji-...
4
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1answer
163 views
What is the etymology of the kanji 石?
Kanji "stone" contains (cliff 厂 + mouth 口).. my question is what is the idea of mixing mouth with cliff ... the cliff function here is clear because it's some thing related with stone.. but what is ...
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1answer
280 views
What is the etymology of the kanji 金?
Trying to look up the etymology of the kanji 金, every reference seems to give a different explanation. Let me ask about two references (Wiktionary and Hanziyuan)
Wiktionary gives the following ...
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2answers
1k views
For the Kanji 校 is the fifth stroke connected to the sixth stroke?
Some websites online show the fifth stroke as a vertical line straight down connected to the sixth stroke, while others (and in Chinese) have it as a downward diagonal dash. Is there are difference ...
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1answer
89 views
How to know the real eytomolgy for any kanji? [closed]
When i ask on this site for the eytomolgy for any kanji .somebody comes (like user called droooze) and answer my question by explaining the eytomolgy and giving a pictures of the kanji in the seal ...
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2answers
283 views
What is the etymology of the kanji 食?
In the Wiktionary page for this kanji they said that it's a pictogram for someone's mouth over a bowl of rice on a stand .. the question is: are they meaning this was the actual way for eating in this ...
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1answer
129 views
What is the etymology of kanji 問?
This kanji "ask" when I researched on it I found that the 門 part is a phonetic and this common with kanjis contain 門 .. but i found this site which says that this part 門 in kanji 問 not a phonetic but ...
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1answer
110 views
Identical on and kun readings
死 is read either し or シ. What would be the difference compared to there being only one reading?
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2answers
192 views
What is the etymology of this kanji 厚?
In this wiktionary page https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/厚
the etymology for the kanji 厚 is not complete: they wrote that it's an ideogrammic compound but they didn't write the component functions. I ...
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1answer
110 views
Relationship between radicals, components, kanji and words
As a novice learner, I'm finding understanding the relationship between radicals, components, kanji and words difficult.
For example, this post on tofugu.com says that:
The kanji is 町, which means ...
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1answer
124 views
How to know all _kanji_ with certain radical?
Is there any official resource listing all Japanese kanji with a given radical? For example I want to know all kanji with the radical 亻.
When I looked I found many sites, but each site has a ...
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2answers
215 views
How many distinct kanjis or words are there in a typical modern Japanese book?
By "typical modern book " I means:
It's modern book and hardly use ancient languages or any topolects.
It's something like a famous novel(not short story) or book with high reputation.
It's a normal ...
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1answer
155 views
The kanji for “YOMI”: Word For “Reading the Mind of Your Opponent” [closed]
"Yomi" is a Japanese concept used by game theorists and high-level, fighting game players. I came across it in February 2019 in a novel and it is quite hard to find information about it online. All I ...
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1answer
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2k views
Why is the meaning of kanji 閑 “leisure”?
The kanji 閑 contains 門 + 木.
Why does gate + tree mean 'leisure'?
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2answers
172 views
o'clock kanji pronunciation 時
Is 時 read as "toki" or "ji"? Duolingo and Google Translate don't seem to be in agreement.
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1answer
116 views
How to write こたえ: 答え or 答?
In the microsoft IME keyboard, and my cellphone's as well, when I write こたえ it is suggested 答え. However, in the Genki I textbook, I've seen it written as
答{こたえ}
Are both of these valid? If so, ...
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0answers
129 views
Is there any unicode characters that is same as a kanji image?
Can you find a unicode character that is same as the kanji image below?
Kanji image:
Thanks if you did it.
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2answers
361 views
Why is there a difference between the hand drawn 道 and the pc font one?
I was studying this kanji and looked at the strokes order to figure out how to write it, only to realize the difference between the pc font one and the diagram. Why is the 3 look-alike only on hand ...
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1answer
81 views
What is the meanings of kanji 手 when it's part of a compound word?
The kanji 手 (not the radical) is very common and i found hundreds of vocbularies are containing it and i thought that its using as a component in words is to refer to ( hand, ability, skill or ...
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1answer
208 views
A question about the kanji 畀?
When I searched for this kanji in japanese dictionaries i didn't found many results just found it in the popular sites like wiktionary page and jisho.org it means "to give" and there is no example ...
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1answer
246 views
What is the meaning of the radical 手 as a part of character?
I know that the radical 手 means "hand" but I wanna know meaning does 「手」 contribute as a part of a character
If anyone can give me five examples and it could be better if he can bring example with a ...
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2answers
2k views
What is the story behind “peach kanji” 桃?
I wanna know why this kanji is containing the tree kanji 木 + the omen kanji 兆 ? What is the relation between tree and omen to give us a kanji for the peach ? Is it a historical story?
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1answer
144 views
Is it common for Kanjis to have several pronounciation like for 乾?
While doing introductionary courses of Japanese, I stumble on a fact that afrights me about the difficulty of the language.
When congratulating each other around a drink: 乾杯
the Kanji 乾 is ...
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2answers
305 views
Kanji of そそっかしい
I am wondering about the way to write そそっかしい in kanji, and if this is possible.
I've found that the な-adjective 粗忽｛そこつ｝, a word with very similar if not identical meaning, can in less common cases be ...
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2answers
496 views
What is ふつ here?
In the following sentence:
ふつ~怒られるんじゃないかぁ~?
For context, the speaker has been beaten and is responding to the victory interview of the one who defeated him, which contains a lot of heartwarming ...
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2answers
204 views
What is the etymology of shamisen (三味線)?
The instrument clearly has 3 (三) strings (線), but where does 味 exactly fit in?
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0answers
70 views
What is the standard size of a kanji as written by a standard caligraphy brush
I recently acquired some brush pens meant for calligraphy, one of size 'standard', and one of size 'beginner'. While I cannot find the site where they were labeled as such, the lineup is here with ...
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1answer
195 views
Kanji size and proportions
When I'm practicing writting kanji, the proportions between each of the strokes always seem to be a little off. Are there known exercises to help with this? At the moment, I'm only trying to "copy" it ...
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1answer
93 views
I can't identify this kanji ( kanji 当ても)
I've decided to read manga in japanese again, I left it for a couple of years so now I'm out of practice and in need of help. It must be a really simple one but still I want to understand without ...
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3answers
629 views
What is the upper radical in the Kanji 悪?
I recognize the heart radical at the bottom of the kanji 悪, but I cannot make my mind about the upper one.
Do you know the name of this radical?
Do you also know of another Kanji using this radical?
...
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2answers
200 views
What is the proper way of writing the first stroke of 言? [duplicate]
I am wondering why is it that 言 looks different in different fonts. In Gothic, the topmost part is just a horizontal line while in Google Search, it is a drop. I am really confused about what is ...
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0answers
62 views
What's the difference between 合う, 会う, 遭う, 逢う,遇う? [duplicate]
I recently stumbled upon the expression 酷{ひど｝い目｛め｝に遭｛あ｝った ("I was having a bad time"), where the verb "to meet" was written using a rather unusual kanji.
After looking into it, I can count at least 5 ...
