Kanji Pict-o-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics (Zzz)

Some of the Kanji pictographs I find helpful, but alot of them are very confusing... and just are mishmashed pictures that you have to work really hard to see.

Its a hit and a miss, though, I hear there are much better ways to learn the Kanji. Alot of these pictures just confuse me honestly >.< though, some of them are helpful.

Like far too many books about Kanji, this one chooses to focus on the "meanings" conveyed by the characters rather than the phonetic and morphological information they supply which is their real function. I will give this an extra star though, because some of the illustrations and mnemonics are clever.

Ivan Rorick

I have been using this book for little more than a week now, and I must say, the amount of kanji I now know has significantaly increased from what I already knew.

This book as all the kanji plus more for the beginners, intermediate and experienced Kanji expert, with both easy and more difficult kanji to learn, i will find this book a treat.

easy kanji is a breeze to learn with pictures that directly correspond, and even tell a little story as to the make up and structure of the kanji. Though the more complicated kanji may take a bit of getting used to (sometimes the pictures do grasp at straws a little) It still is a book that every student of Japanese should have.

The pictures contain all the On/Kun readings and seperate particles that make up the kanji itself, so it's easy to break down and then build it up.

****/*****

This book presents approximately 1,000 kanji characters, along with mnemonics designed to help you memorize the meanings. For example, on the cover, the book suggests that the character for "stop" looks like a policeman saying "stop!"

It's a good idea, but the bottom line is that most of the entries just are not that good. For example, the character for "horse" really looks like a horse. You shouldn't need any help noticing that. The book twists the character into a different, and much less plausible, horse.

Try "Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference" instead. It is much more useful.

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (3/07)

Kanji, the written form of Japanese characters, is very difficult to try to figure out. The author of this book, Michael Rowley, used "mnemonic devices" as memory aids to simplify the process. Mnemonics are used to create associations. I used this method to visually learn to read Braille and I found it worked. Mr. Rowley does an even better job with the mnemonics that he has created to help with this process. I found the characters much easier to memorize than when I learned Braille.

He provides you with pictures (pictographs) that are drawn in a manner closely resembling the kanji character. Your mind makes an association between the two and the next time you see the kanji, you remember the picture and what it represents. In this book, he provides the means for you to learn over 1,000 kanji characters. This is about 50% of the kanji characters that are commonly used in print today.

The chapters are well-organized and have an extensive index the end of the book, which also includes the kanji characters for a quick reference. I also found his choice of kanji characters to be very meaningful and most likely to be encountered. Mr. Rowley has the distinction of earning both the International Typographic Design Award and the HOW International Design Award. I can see why he would earn these awards.

In addition to recognizing the meaning behind many of the kanji tattoos that you commonly see today, I also think that martial artists would enjoy this book. In the Japanese styles we see a great deal of kanji characters and it would be nice to be able to recognize their meanings. I also hope that when I return to Japan, I will have a much easier time understanding what the signs mean over there. I was clueless on my first trip over there and I look forward to this challenge. Of course, "Kanji Pict-o-graphix" will be going with me!