“Radical” Aspects of Kanji Characters
Donald C. Wood
Every once in a while the issue
of replacing Chinese characters (kanji) in the Japanese Language with
phonetic hiragana arises. In February of 1996 there was a small
debate over this in the pages of the Daily Yomiuri newspaper. One
argument for doing away with the ideograms is that it takes too much
time and effort for foreigners to learn the written language.
What would happen if foreign students in the United States called for
the abolishment of ambiguous spellings and pronunciations in the
English Language to make studying in English more convenient?
They would probably not even get a response.
Studying kanji does take time,
and memorizing them takes more time, but there are some keys to
learning the forms, meanings, and pronunciations of kanji characters,
and one of those keys is “hen.” No, hen is not a bird, and not
“strange,” either. Hen (偏) is one classification of “bushu” (部首),
known in English as “radicals.” Understanding radicals is the key
to building a strong comprehension of kanji, and once one memorizes the
types of radicals, and their names and meanings, the pronunciations and
definitions of kanji become more clear. The system of classifying
radicals has been around for nearly twenty centuries. The current
system, which utilizes 214 “parent” radicals was introduced in
1716. Radicals can be classified by stroke count for easy
reference, but are primarily divided into seven categories, depending
on where they appear in kanji characters.
Hen, the most numerous type of
radical, appear on the left side of kanji, such as the left half of the
character 村 (mura). The figure is a variant of the character for
tree, 木 (ki), and is, in fact, called “ki-hen.” It is not
surprising that nearly all Chinese ideograms that stand for types of
trees contain this element. Another common hen is “gon-ben,” the
seven-stroke element on the left half of 語 (go), which is a variant of
the standard 言 (gon). Since 言 relates to speech, one can assume
that any character containing it’s radical form stands a good chance of
also relating to communication. The next category of radicals is
known as “tsukuri” (旁). These appear on the right side of kanji
characters, such as the right half of 親 (oya), which is called “miru,”
since it comes from the kanji 見 [(mi)ru], meaning “to see.”
Another example is the three-stroke element in left half of 形
(katachi), aptly named “san-zukuri.” “Kanmuri” (冠) means “crown,”
and these, predictably, hover over kanji characters. For example,
the top section of 草 (kusa), “weeds” or “grass,” is called
“kusa-kanmuri.” Without its crown, 草 is simply 早 [(haya)i].
Both of these ideograms, however, also have the pronunciation
“sou.” Another example is the top of 京 (kyou), which is called
“nabe-buta.” Nabe (鍋) means “pot,” and “futa” means “lid,” so
“nabe-buta” is the lid of a pot, which is exactly what it looks
like. “Ashi” (脚) are the legs of kanji. For example, the
two-stroke bottom section of 元 (moto) and 兄 (ani) is called
“hito-ashi,” literally a person’s legs.
These four classifications of
radicals are generally the most common. Together, the names for
these types comprise the word “henboukankyaku” (偏旁冠脚)、another word for
bushu, or radicals. The other types are “tare,” those which
partly surround a character on the upper-left, “nyou,” those that
partly surround a character on the lower-left, and “kamae,” those which
surround a character on three or more sides. The radicals are
descended from original, or parent, kanji. Some kanji, such as 山
(yama) have given birth to more than one radical. There is
yama-hen, as on the left side of 峠 (touge), which means a mountain pass
or ridge, and also yama-kanmuri, which appears in 崩 (hou), to crumble.
There are many books made
especially for English-speakers who wish to study kanji
characters. However, a very useful aid in studying the ideograms
would be an actual school textbook. There are those that contain
the entire collection of kanji recommended for each grade level from
the first year of elementary school through the last year of high
school. These should have lists of the radicals, and their names
and origins, in them. The books which were mainly referred to in
order to write this article are The National Textbook Company’s New
Japanese-English Character Dictionary, edited by Jack Halpern of Showa
Women’s University, and the somewhat dated A Guide to Reading and
Writing Japanese, published by Tuttle, which contains only the 1,850
basic characters and lists of the “kana” syllables.