Kanji

• Japanese: 漢字 (kanji)

Kanji are the Chinese characters, sometimes described as ideographs, used alongside the phonetic kana in Japanese writing.

Kanji are composed of radicals, elements which indicate either the meaning of a character, or its pronunciation (reading). A relatively small number of radicals are used, in different combinations, to produce a large variety of characters. One example of a radical that suggests meaning is the sanzui, three strokes to the left of a character indicating an association with water. It appears, for example, in characters such as 滝 (waterfall), 泳 (swimming), and 流 (flow). An example of a radical that indicates pronunciation can be found in the right half of the character for "flow." That character, 流, can be pronounced ryû. The character 琉 has the same radical on its right side, indicating that it too is pronounced ryû. However, the character refers to a precious stone, a meaning unrelated to that of "flowing"; the right-side radical indicates only sound, and not meaning.

Each character may be read (pronounced) in a number of different ways. The vast majority of characters have at least two readings: a kun-yomi and an on-yomi. The kun-yomi is sometimes called the Japanese or Japanese-style reading; these are native Japanese words, not derived from Chinese. The on-yomi, meanwhile, is often called the Chinese or Chinese-style reading; this reading is often somewhat related to the actual pronunciation in Chinese, but should not be confused for being the actual Chinese pronunciation. To take one example, the character 港, meaning "port" or "harbor", is pronounced 'kong' (as in Hong Kong) in Mandarin Chinese, but is 'kô' (こう) in the Japanese "Chinese-style" on-yomi reading. The kun-yomi, having no relation to the Chinese, and drawing upon native Japanese vocabulary, is minato.