漢字 - A guide to understanding Kanji

Introduction to Kanji

During last session, we essentially talked about Kana, constituted of both Hiragana and Katakana, two elements constituting the Japanese writing system. If you already learned both of them, congrats. However, the Japanese writing system also includes a third element, which are Kanji. 

Nowadays, Kanji which are easily recognizable thanks to the fact that they are ideograms showcasing ideas or concepts through complex drawings (sometimes they can be quite simple as well you will discover) .

They are used, of course, in the Japanese language, but also in the Chinese writing system. As a matter of facts, Chinese don't use any alphabet to write but instead make use of approximately 10,000 of these ideograms. 

History of Kanji in the Japanese writing system

Until the fifth century, the inhabitants of the archipelago didn't have any writing system. As a consequence, they were drastically impacted through their relations with the continent and especially both China and Korea which also used Kanji as a writing system at that time.

If it is true that archaeologists found many official precious documents such as swords, letters or coins attesting a relative use of Kanji in some regions of Japan dating of 57 AD, Japanese people of that time didn't know how to read or write it. Those items were more likely imported from China during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han.

We will have to wait until 478 and the development of diplomatic, commercial and political relations between China and Japan. When came the reign of the 3rd Japanese empress Suiko, the two countries entered a period of common understanding and recognition with emperors of both nations having established a diplomatic correspondence. It is during this time that Japan benefited from the existing Chinese writing system.

Later during the Heian period in Japan, archaeologists discovered the creation of a complex Japanese writing system being slightly different from the Chinese named Kanbun. This new writing system developed during the 7th century was combining both Kanji with specific glyph and signs corresponding to the current Japanese grammar used nowadays.

音読みと訓読み - On'yomi and Kun'yomi

While Japanese only developed their own writing system at the beginning of the 7th century, mastering the Chinese characters known as Kanji, of course it doesn't mean Japanese didn't have a common language spread among the archipelago's inhabitants to start with at that time. 

Since Japanese already had nouns and terms in order to designate the same concepts as Kanji aimed to define, when studying Kanji as part of the Japanese writing system we can distinguish two types of pronunciation for a same ideogram :

On'yomi : The original Chinese pronunciation of the Kanji later adapted for being easily readable for Japanese people.

Kun'yomi : The original Japanese pronunciation of the notion or concept designated by the Kanji used by Japanese before the inclusion of the Chinese ideograms in their writing systems.

As an example, here is the Kanji meaning "Ice":       氷

Its has two pronunciations which are ひょう as in the word "glacier" 氷河 (ひょうが) or こおり when used alone.

Next week I will be upload a first Japanese lesson so keep studying! また来週！