Kanji 漢字

kanji · from Japanese

What is kanji?

Kanji are Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing alongside hiragana and katakana, usually for word stems and Sino-Japanese words.

Japan officially lists 2,136 jōyō kanji for general use (2010 revision). Most kanji have several readings: Chinese-derived on'yomi and native kun'yomi. Japan also simplified some characters (shinjitai) differently from mainland China, so the same character can look different in Tokyo and Beijing.

Examples

山 yama / san (mountain); 食べる taberu (eat); 学校 gakkō (school); 日本 Nihon (Japan)

Kungfucius says: Kanji: Chinese characters that moved to Japan and picked up five extra pronunciations each.