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KANJI
NOVEMBER 18, 2014 2416 WORDS WRITTEN BY KRISTEN DEXTER ART BY AYA FRANCISCO
Radicals are the building blocks of kanji, the once Chinese characters that are used as one of the three
writing systems in Japan today. While you may be familiar with the term "radical" many people don't
really know what they are or how to find the radical within a kanji that determines its arrangement and
organization.
If you're a WaniKani user, you need to know that these aren't the same types of radicals that you're
learning. This is the official (read: traditional) system used in dictionaries and taught in Japanese schools.
While WaniKani teaches you useful mnemonics to piece together and understand what kanji are made of,
finding the radical is a different process.
Before we dive in, you should already be familiar with kanji stroke order. Being able to recognize the
number of strokes in a kanji is essential for what we're about to go over. If you ever want to use a
traditional or electronic dictionary, have proper Japanese handwriting, and/or
Radicals, known in Japanese as bushu , are a way to classify characters in order to find them in a
list or collection. Sometimes they can help you figure out the meaning of the kanji, but most of the time
they're just there to help you find out where they are. Radicals have their own nicknames in Japanese to
help understand them, but even most Japanese people can't name them all from memory.
First, let's look at how the radicals are categorized. The Kangxi radical system is a set of 214 radicals that
are used to classify all of the kanji used in Japanese. Many Japanese character dictionaries are arranged
by this system, instead of the Japanese Syllabary Order (gojuuonjun ), also known as
AIUEO Order (
use.
The Kangxi name comes from the original Chinese dictionary that standardized the system of
classification back at the beginning of the 18th century, the Kangxi Dictionary (koukijiten ).
Though the idea of arranging characters by their 214 unique radicals was initially introduced a century
earlier in the Zihui Dictionary (), it wasn't until the Kangxi Dictionary that the system became widely
accepted. The Zihui Dictionary was also the first to sort characters by their stroke order.
Radicals are generally broken up into categories based on that number of strokes. For instance, the lowest
number of strokes a radical can have is one, and there are six different unique radicals that can have one
stroke. The highest number of strokes a radical can have is seventeen, and there is only one, the
radical (flute).
Radicals were not made up to help you learn Japanese. If they were, there would probably be enough to
cover all the parts that make up a character. Again, they're the pieces of the kanji that Chinese scholars
recognized and used to help with categorization. Don't sit down and memorize all 214 radicals and expect
to know Japanese. The official radicals and their nicknames aren't meant to help you figure out what a
kanji means. What a shame.
MODIFIED RADICALS
Radicals also don't always look the same in every situation. There are radicals that take different forms if
you put them on top, to the left, or on the bottom portion of a character. Here are all the radicals that have
variations:
Radical
Variant(s)
Radical
Variant(s)
Radical
Variant(s)
Some of them are fairly simple and don't change very drastically, but as you can see there are some that do.
It's easy to get tripped up looking for a radical and realizing later that you were trying to look up at variant
the whole time.
Location
Examples
() in ,() in ,() in
() in , in , in
Kanmuri Top
() in , in in , in
Ashi Bottom
in , () in , in
Tare Northwest
in , in , in
Ny Southwest
() in , in , in
Kamae - Enclosure
in , in , in
Now that you know where the radicals can be, the hard part is in finding which radical is the radical, or
rather, the radical it will be categorized under. Luckily, there are twelve almost easy steps to finding the
radical. They are as follows:
1. Is the whole character the radical?
The most obvious, and yet sometimes the most difficult to find, are the ones that are radicals themselves.
For example, , , , and are all kanji where the whole thing is the radical.
2. Does it only have one radical?
Sometimes there is only one radical in the character. only has the radical , and only has the
radical .
3. Is there an enclosure?
If you find a character that has a radical covering 2 4 sides, that's usually the radical. In the radical
is , in the radical is , in the radical is .
4. Is there an obvious radical on the left?
The left radical should have nothing above or below it, and should not be intersecting with anything on the
right. In the radical is , in the radical is . Note that the parts of the characters that are on the
right side are not radicals.
5. What about on the right?
This is the same as the last one, but on the opposite side. In the radical is , and in the radical is .
6. How about on top?
Many top radicals look like slanted roofs. In the radical is , and in the radical is .
7. Okay, try the bottom?
These can be tricky, but remember if there are two or more parts on top, the radical might be on the
bottom. In the radical is , and in the radical is .
Now is the point where you only continue if you tried all of the other steps and still couldn't find the
radical.
8. Northwest?
If we look at the character there is a lot going on. The left and right sides are not radicals by themselves.
So we look northwest, or top left, first, and see that the radical is .
9. Northeast?
So there was nothing in the northwest, how about northeast, or top right? In the only part that is a
radical is .
10. Southeast?
You can't find anything at the top, so move down from where you were. In we once again find the
radical to be .
11. Southwest?
Last weird direction. Move back to the bottom left and sometimes the radical will be there. Look at this
character all of these corners are radicals! So you take the bottom left, .
Here, have an easier one, is not an enclosure radical because that top part isn't a radical at all. is the
radical.
12. Okay, I give up, is it on the inside?
You don't have to wait until you've gone through all of the other steps to see these. In the radical is ,
in the radical is , and in the radical is .
Remember if there are two radicals in the same position, always go with the one with the higher number
of strokes. Also, make sure the part you're picking is actually one of the 214 Kangxi radicals. Sometimes
the first thing you pick might look like it's right because of its position, but if it isn't one of the 214, then
it's technicallynot a radical, and you won't be able to find it because the section you're looking for doesn't
exist!
Nelson's method is not the only way you can find the radical, in fact many character dictionaries
have their own methods. Sometimes there are modifications made in order to fit the way the dictionary
organizes it's radicals, so make sure when you're using a new one to take a look at their guide just in case
there are any differences.
MISSING RADICALS
Unfortunately (and fortunately for us language learners), thanks to kanji simplification by the Japanese
government, some kanji lost their radicals. The solution was to give them new radicals, but that doesn't
make them any easier to find.
Let's look at two examples:
Traditional Form
Traditional Radical
Simplified Form
New Radic
You can see why they had to change the categorization of these kanji. The problem is when you're trying to
find the simplified version of a character and all you have is the traditional version to go by. Luckily, if you
have a good dictionary you can still look up the old character and it will reference the newer, simplified
version.
Radical
Reading
Nickname
one
rod, line
dot
slash, kana no
lid
(,)
man
eight
()
sword, knife
cross, ten
cliff
mouth
box, enclosure
earth
woman
roof, kana u
(, )
little, small
flag, corpse
mountain
cloth, turban
dotted cliff
bow
(,)
heart
(,)
hand
()
sun
Radical
Reading
Nickname
tree
(,)
water
()
fire
(, )
cow
()
dog
(, , )
jewel, jade
sick, sickness
dish
eye
stone
()
showing, spirit
stand, standing
()
bamboo
rice
()
thread, silk
ear
()
meat
ship, boat
()
grass
bug, insect
()
clothes, clothing
see, seeing
()
speech, speaking
small shell
Radical
Reading
()
Nickname
foot
cart, car
(,,)
road, walk
(,,)
()
metal, gold
gate
()
rain
()
eat, food
horse
fish
bird
Now that you know all about radicals, why don't you put your new knowledge to the test in a kanji
dictionary? Good luck!