Remembering the Kana: The Hiragana / The Katakana

Put simply, the mnemonics is this book were far inferior to those in White Rabbit Press's kana flashcards (link: Kana Flashcards), which offer the additional benefit of being easier to 'flip through' than a book. While the book helpfully divides the syllabaries into digestible lessons with 6-9 characters each, the same thing can be accomplished by simply dividing the flashcards into arbitrary piles. While there is nothing egregiously wrong with the book the flashcards are more effective.

I used this book and now know the hiragana backward and forward but also had to rely on Michael Rowley's great Kana Pict-o-Graphix book to get past some of the horrible convoluted thought processes that Heisig uses.

The system is fairly effective but some of the examples are a real stretch. Ni is easier to visualize as a knee cap than a cape being held to someone's knees by two daggers. E is just easier to rote memorize than trying to envision an ape sitting in a chalk circle using a puppy dog and its tail to draw daggers and n's and whatever on the floor. Mo is way easier to see as catch "mo" fish with 2 worms. Also, if you don't find his learning method effective you're stuck because ni depends on you learning ko his way...and so on. I found myself using the book strictly to learn the stroke order of the character halfway through and looking elsewhere for a better visualization/character reference. I can't imagine trying to learn kanji with a similar system.

Don't get me wrong. I used the book and scored 97% on an online 146 question hiragana flash test today. Not too shabby...but it's a mixed bag. Grab the other cheap little pocket book with the Kana Pict-o-Graphix as a supplement...you won't be let down.

This book has a "creative" (if not downright silly) approach, there is no doubt. However, I wouldn't advise using Heisig's back-of-the-napkin approach. Far too dated (this book came out in 1978), far too gimmick-y.
You are better off buy something from Hiroko Storm, Michael Rowley or Peter X. Takahashi. This way, you know you are at least learning Japanese in a really Japanese way...


Jimi's Book of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese (Hiragana)

I agree with some other reviewers: it would be helpful if Heisig explained a bit better the "dictionary order" of the kana (essential for finding words in a dictionary). All in all, however, I found this to be a shockingly effective method for learning the kana, a task which I had struggled to master any number of times. I picked up the hiragana version of this book soon after arriving in Japan with my wife (then working on her dissertation in Japanese literature), convinced that I was doomed to utter illiteracy; two days later, I actually could read and remember all of the hiragana (the katakana followed soon after). Heisig's mnemonic method recalls those used by medieval and early modern writers--not much of a surprise, given his Jesuit training. Whatever the origins, the proof is in the pudding for me. While some reviewers thought Heisig's mind-pictures were absurd and frivolous, I found this to be the whole point--they stick in one's mind (I still remember the silly image of someone holding a comb between his knees, associated with the kana for "ni")!

First, let me say I had already memorized almost all of the hiragana by rote before I finally found this book, so I have a frame of reference for both rote memorization and the author's method.

I found the mnemonic devices in this book to be idiotically confusing most of the time. I gave it two stars only because a handful of the idiotic mnemonics led me to simpler ones that I could actually use for the characters I had difficulty with. Only a couple were directly usable.

For instance, to remember "ni", the author has you go through a long, complicated story about capes and interlocking combs and knees. Me, I just looked at the character and it looked like you're looking down at a seated person and their knees are sticking out. Isn't that simpler?

Really, it would be less effort simply to learn the alphabet by rote, and then you'd know it in the correct order as well. I found the ditty for remembering the alphabet order to be a handy crutch, but learning by rote teaches it just as well. I can write the hiragana alphabet table by memory fairly quickly. I doubt anyone who learns hiragana from this book can say the same.

My opinion is: Use this book if you absolutely cannot learn by rote, but otherwise, you're far better off downloading one of the sets of free kana flash cards found on the web and learning by rote. It's cheaper and it's better for you.