Japanese writing overview

This page is intended to provide a very basic overview of the three types of Japanese scripts. Please see our Hiragana and Katakana page if you just want to get started learning to write.

Kanji

Kanji is the oldest script in Japanese. It came about in Japan through contact with China (surprise).
Kanji themselves originated as pictograms (sometimes weird ones), and gradually became more complex. Examples:

• 一 (ichi) – One
• 二 (ni) – Two
• 三 (san) – three
• 四 (yon) – four. Because 4 lines was too easy.
• 口 (kuchi) – mouth (originally a circle)
• 日 (nichi) -day/sun – A setting sun? 
• 目 (me) – Eye. Originally a circle in a circle, got smushed flat. 

Kanji uses

In writing, Kanji are used for:

• Most nouns.
• Most verb and adjective stems.
• The names of most people.

Kanji terminology

• Stroke: 1 line or dash of a character (Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana).
• Stroke order: The correct direction and order to write a Kanji. It’s important.
• Stroke Number: The number of total strokes to write a kanji, following proper stroke order
• Radical: A basic part of a Kanji. Kind of like a letter to a word. Most Kanji are just assembled from pieces.  They are worth learning as you go. They provide hints to the meaning and reading of a Kanji. For example, さんずい,氵 (“3 water”), almost always means a Kanji is related to water somehow. 
• Onyomi: The Chinese reading of a Kanji. Used in compounds.
• Kunyomi: The Japanese reading a Kanji. Used for native Japanese words.
• Nanori: The reading of the Kanji in a name. Could be basically anything related to the kanji. Don’t waste your time learning these. 

Hiragana

The first real “native” Japanese script. It came about from mostly court ladies simplifying Kanji that had the same sound as a native Japanese sound. This script is very “flowy” and has lots of curved lines that are quite fast to write. This is the first script you should learn.

Hiragana uses

• Okurigana: Letters that come after a Kanji. These are mostly used for verb and adjective endings, ie tense. 
• Furigana: Phonetic reading of a Kanji given as a reading aid, to distinguish between multiple possibilities, or to indicate an unusual reading. Example:
  学校がっこう
• Particles or helping verbs. 
• In place of obscure or annoying to write kanji (handwriting)
• When the Kanji is not expected to be known (ie by children)
• When the Kanji is not known.

Katakana

The final script to talk about is Katakana. It was developed by monks after Hiragana. It consists of straight lines, and was designed to be squeezed into the space between lines in religious texts, etc. It is the rarest of the Japanese scripts, and should be the second script you learn (because it won’t take long after hiragana). 

Katakana uses

• To write foreign words
• To emphasize words
• To emphasis something odd or jagged about the way the word was said (robotic speech, etc)
• Scientific names
• Sometimes to write certain native Japanese words with really hard kanji. Rare. 

Summary Table