The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: (JLPT All Levels) Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Characters

This book summarizes the origins of all 2136 Joyo Kanji required for learning Japanese. It also provides a short mnemonic for each character.The consensus of advice I got was to use this book as a supplement to the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course, which has a better learning order and mnemonic system but doesn’t have much information about etymologies. KKLC organizes all the Joyo Kanji in a logical learning order with an efficient system for remembering each kanji and its main vocabulary, while this book gives you thorough background information that adds another dimension to your learning. With these two books for kanji, plus a good textbook like Nakama, plus Rikai-kun/chan/sama, the Makino grammar books and some kind of reading material, you are in good shape to teach yourself how to read Japanese.You can’t really teach yourself kanji from this book by itself, because you would learn the characters in a mostly random order with no blueprint. Also the mnemonics are not always very helpful, and don’t add up to a structured and consistent system (this is where KKLC is in a class by itself). Still, I like that the mnemonics in this book provide a different perspective, with some useful insights that KKLC doesn’t have.Some people might find the etymologies a bit too much, since they go into discussions of different academic interpretations of where a character came from and how it developed over time. Personally I like having access to this information, even if it’s mostly just for curiosity. Although most of the etymologies are not easy to apply for mnemonic purposes, many of them are interesting in themselves. Also they can be very helpful for understanding the nuances of a kanji, which you can't get from a dictionary.The etymologies cram in a lot of information and citations, but they’re written in a compact style, as are the mnemonics. I like how neither talks down to you or wastes your time with silly nonsense or cuteness.To get the most value out of this book, use it as a reference book rather than as a textbook. Be purposeful in drawing out the information that helps you, and ignore the rest.

My Japanese is VERY limited and it is quite daunting to learn, though way easier than Mandarin, having a fine book like this does a lot to spark my interest. Tuttle's Complete Guide To Japanese Kanji is a comprehensive book of essential Japanese characters including a limited chart of katakana and hiragana, but really more focused on the Kanji, complete with history, etymology, stroke order, word usage and mnemonic tricks. Filled with tons of information, this is completely fascinating, also lots of fun to read and is one of my favourite Japanese books. Not a dictionary but more of a catalogue of Kanji, so having a Japanese dictionary as well is necessary- luckily, Tuttle's Concise Japanese Dictionary is excellent. I am very impressed by Tuttle's Japanese and Chinese books, and also recommend the similar Reading and Writing Chinese for Mandarin, if you have both you'll see the Chinese roots of many Japanese characters. Also recommended their Japanese Stories and Japanese Folklore For Language Learners, a bit advanced, but a fine set of simply told traditional tales in bilingual format with vocabulary and cultural word lists.

Quite nice update to the original book. Positive changes - first section has the 1006 educational characters in its superior pedagogical order to the previous 996; characters are shown in clear large print which is much easier to discriminate than the previous brush strokes; all 2136 new kanji are included of course; JLPT levels are marked, however they had to arbitrarily decide if a character is L2 or L3, also all characters other than L2-L5 are marked L1, what else could you do although in the older rankings 26 rare kanji were properly left out of the listings, ex #1731 (CHIN) now has an L1 listing whereas previously properly left out; mixed ON-kun kanji examples are printed caps/small for components which is nice (ex #1187) unlike before.The etymologies have undergone a lot of rewrite with sources cited. Sometimes this is really helpful. As an example #1234 KIN meaning "fungus, bacteria". I slightly prefer O'Neill's "fungus, germ" but not bad. In the etymology, it is clearly shown that the character originally meant mushroom and fungus (Shirakawa and Shuowen). Try reading the etymology and the character springs alive! (note the crowding concept in the character). Often it is more useful than the mnemonic given. In addition the examples are really good here and throughout the book. Here SAIKIN is bactera (detailed germ) and KINRUI (fungus type) means fungi - excellent. The example compounds in the book are really great with short and accurate definitions.By the way, Kanji Alive (U. of Chicago) online also has really nice mnemonics for all N2-N5 and kyoiku kanji as well as others and are based on DeRoo. Some of those mnemonics are really super.

The only part I don’t like about the book is there is no sequence of strokes for each kanji. It gives you general rule in the beginning of horizontal battle vertical but no strokes arrows for each kanji.

Great condition

my daughter loved this book

I bought this updated version to replace my 1st edition. The explanations seem better. I really enjoy the historical references that tell the story of the kanji. Very helpful book in learning or looking up kanji. The mnemonic devices are very helpful and I like that it is presented in grade order. This, along with The Key to Kanji by Williams are very helpful in memorizing the kanji. Of course, there are some great items online that are helpful too. Wish I'd had these 30 years ago when I first started learning Japanese.

O livro é, de fato, maravilhoso. Bastante completo, incluindo capítulos iniciais que falam da história dos Kanji e um que introduz os radicais usados. Além, é claro, do catálogo de todos os 2136 kanji mais usados, com definição, etimologia e dicas para memorização. Tudo em inglês.

Ottima guida che permette di apprendere i kanji con i riferimenti storici/accademici. Utile per chi ha una conoscenza più approfondita.

Va muy bien

Totalmente recomendable. Me gusto que tiene la historia de los orígenes del kanji lo cual es algo que my curiosidad me había insistido en investigar. Las explicaciones son claras y es fácil de entender. Muy buen libro de referencia y apoyo en el aprendizaje del kanji. 👍🏼

This particular book had been a much better and cheaper alternative to the textbooks my school offers for kanji learning, which was about 150 kanji only. Not only does it have many of the standard kanji, it also breaks down the radicals. The book is clearly laid out and extremely helpful to anyone learning Japanese!