More "Radical" Aspects of Kanji Characters

Donald C. Wood


        As discussed previously, kanji are far more easily understood if one learns more about their components.  Radicals, or bushu (部首), are probably the most important of these.  The first four categories of radicals are: hen (偏), tsukuri (旁), kanmuri (冠), and ashi (脚).  These were taken up in a previous article.

        The next three types of radicals usually surround Chinese ideograms either partially or fully.  Tare (垂), are radicals which half enclose a character on the top and left side.  One example is “gandare,” the upper left section of 原 (gen or hara), which means a field or meadow.  The form of gandare actually refers to a cliff.  Another example is “madare,” which appears in 庫 (ko), meaning a storehouse or warehouse.  Many houses have an attached shako (車庫).  Shako is an easily understood compound word made of the character 車 (sha or kuruma), meaning “car” and 庫.  It is not too difficult to see that this means a storage place for a car.

        Nyou (繞) are radicals that partially enclose a character on the left and bottom.  One example is the lower-left section of the ideogram 返 [hen or kae(su)], meaning “to return” or “to give back,” and in 近　[kin or chika(i)], meaning “near.”  This radical is called “shinnyou,” and a very similar version is known as “ennyou.”  This appears in 建 [ken or tate(ru)], meaning “to build” or “to　establish,” and also in 延 [en or nobi(ru)], which means “to postpone” or “to extend.”  One interesting radical of this category is “kinyou.”  It appears, for example, in the ideogram 魅 (mi), which means “to fascinate,” “to enchant,” or “to bewitch.”  The parent kanji of this radical is 鬼 (ki or oni), meaning “ogre,” “fiend,” or “demon.”  Thus, it relates in meaning to 魅, which also appears in the compound word 魅力(miryoku): “charm,” “glamour,” or “appeal,” and in 魅惑 (miwaku): “fascination,” or “enchantment.”  One member of this category which looks a little different from the others is “ukebako.”  It is found in the ideogram 凶 (kyou), meaning “evil” or “calamity.”

        The last category of radicals is called “kamae” (構).  These surround a Chinese character in different ways than the previous two categories do.  Some of them, such as 門 (mongamae), and 行 (gyougamae), trap elements between themselves to form other ideograms, such as 開 [kai or hira(ku)], 間 (kan, ken, ma, or aida), and 術 (jutsu).  Other kamae　cover the top and right sides of kanji.  Probably the most common of these is “kigamae.”  It appears in two characters which share the pronunciation “ki”: 気, meaning “spirit,” “energy,” or “mind,” and　also 汽, meaning “steam,” or “vapor.”  Another member of this broad category, “kakushigamae,” forms the top, left side, and bottom boundary of a character.  It appears in the ideogram 区, (ku), which means a section of a larger metropolis, and in the character 匹 (hitsu), which is used for counting animals.  “Dougamae,” or “keigamae,” covers a character on the top and both sides.  It relates in sound to the ideogram 同 [dou or ona(ji)], meaning “same.”   Finally, “kunigamae” completely encloses a character on all sides.  国 (kuni or koku), usually meaning a country or nation, and 囲 [i or kako(mu)] both use kunigamae and both relate to the radial in meaning and function: a country is surrounded by political borders, and the verb “kakomu” means “to surround.”

        The relationship in pronunciation between 井 (a water well) and 囲 (to surround) is interesting.  Both of them can be pronounced “i” as in “we” or “be.”  This can be found among a great many kanji characters, such as 気 and 汽, mentioned above.  Associating pronunciations with certain sections of ideograms is a good way to remember how to read them.  Another good way to do this has already been alluded to above as well.  Often the original form of radicals will clue the reader in on how to decipher a previously unencountered ideogram.  For example, as indicated above the character 鬼 (a supernatural monster) is the parent character of the radical in 魅: to bewitch or enchant.  If a person comes across a similar ideogram they can reasonably guess that it relates to the supernatural as well.  Along the same lines: after reading all of this information about individual kanji characters and radicals, you may have trouble seeing the forest for the trees.  Well, not to worry, because the result of putting two trees (木 and 木) together is 林 (hayashi), meaning a grove or forest.  Three trees together, predictably, results in 森 (mori), which refers to a thicker or denser forest.  Going even further, one can combine 森 with 林 to get the word 森林 (shinrin), which also means a dense, thick natural forest.  (After all, there are cases in which the whole does equal the sum of its parts!)

        If a slight digression may be permitted, the meanings of words in a language often offer fascinating insights into the cultural environment in which they originated.  Kanji characters are no exception.  Since most of them were introduced from China over ten centuries ago, one cannot easily say that they represent native elements of Japanese culture without meticulous investigation, but there are plenty of interesting Japanese cultural values and historical phenomena embedded in the pictographs.  For example, the position of a young wife, or “yome” in a farming household was always very low.  She was basically an outsider – having married in from another house that was sometimes very far away.  She could not begin to rise up in her new household until she provided an heir (a son), and even if she did so, she always had to depend on the benevolence of her mother-in-law.  A similar situation existed in most parts of China.  The Chinese character for woman is 女, and the one for household is 家.  Correspondingly, the character for “yome” is a woman attached to a household: 嫁.  She seems to be always on the outside - never really on the inside –like an attachment of sorts, until she can transcend the position of young wife and ascend to that of household head’s wife once her parents-in-law are gone.

        Kittredge Cherry, in her 1987 book entitled Womansword, takes up the issue of another Chinese character in the Japanese language and its sexually discriminative nature.  The character is 姦, pronounced “kan,” and is usually written 姦しい (kashimashii), meaning “noisy.”  It comes from a Chinese proverb stating that if three women get together, the result is noise (女+女+女=姦).  The type of noise referred to here is the endless chatter of pointless gossip that women will, presumably, engage in if three are assembled.  The word cannot, in normal circumstances, be applied to men.  Furthermore, there is no such ideogram, word, or phrase for men at all, either.  The existence of this character brings up several questions, such as whether women are the only people who gossip, whether women’s gossip is actually less meaningful and more “noisy” then men’s gossip, and who decided that women’s talk is necessarily pointless or negative in the first place.  It would seem, actually, that when young mothers get together, for example, they will share very important information about nutrition for their families, health care for their children, and other matters which men do not usually concern themselves with.  It could be that since women’s voices are higher in tone, men may have decided long ago that any conversation between three or more of them is noisy and bothersome, but I may be digressing too much.

        At any rate, studying Chinese characters is not necessarily as difficult as it seems.  If one focuses on the distinct elements of the ideograms called “radicals” or “bushu” (部首), they will probably progress faster than they would have otherwise and probably enjoy it all the more.  In addition, Japanese people often describe kanji characters to each other by either writing with their finger on their palm or simply by explaining verbally which radical to add to which other character to get the target ideogram.  Non-native speakers can surprise people by participating in this activity as well!

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