Kanji Alchemy

Due to various reasons most Japanese characters (kanji) have two or more pronunciations and frequently different meanings as well. Although kanji often have a Sino-Chinese reading (on-yomi), a native Japanese reading (kun-yomi) and a reading for Japanese names (nanori), they on occasion only have one reading. This textbook is designed to highlight a range of nearly 700 characters that have one reading only.

The current Jouyou Kanji (regular-use kanji) list consists of 2136 characters so approximately one-third of these characters have a one-to-one relationship between sound and symbol. Focusing initially on the 700 characters will strongly reduce the burden on memory and make the learning process a great deal less onerous.