私の好きな漢字

Japanese
#1

こんにちは!

One of the things I like most about Japanese are kanjis, but kanjis in themselves. In fact, I am quite interested in 書道 and would like to practice it, though this is not easy when not living in Japan!

Whilst learning kanji, I’ve grown to like (and dislike) some particular ones, both how they look and the flow of the hand while drawing them. I wonder if this is normal and whether it happens to Japanese people themselves as well.

Finally, one kanji I particularly like is 龍, the full-fledged old Chinese dragon version, of course (竜 is nice, but just so). However, when it shows in 襲 (as in 襲撃, raid) I find it too much, if you get my meaning.

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So, which one would be yours?

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#2

mmm great question, I have a tendency to like the ones that I can write well (as opposed to the ones that always seem to look :poop: when I do them. But I’ve not been writing as much recently (kanji practice has been sacrificed on the altar of reading a bit), so I can’t remember off the top of my head. I really must put some time into it again.
Never enough time is there really to do it all!

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#3

I have a soft spot for a few for different reasons. 繭 is cute. 魔 stood out to me as a beginner. 取 is a hand taking an ear from a dead soldier’s body as to count the number of people one has killed since carry a head is a bit laborious. 卵 is some testicles by some sources (although not by many) - I am childish so find this funny. 永 is something a I like doing in 書道 since if you can master it then you can do most of the types of strokes and therefore do most other kanji pretty well. I currently like 綴 and 啜, also 旭, for no real reason.

I used to ask Japanese people if they have a favourite kanji but most people don’t or don’t think about it. They can normally think of ones they like after a second but most normal Japanese people have no special interest in kanji, either writing or history or whatever, in my experience. Makes sense why it would be the case though.

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#4

The ones that I can write and read easily, lol.

No, but seriously.

I’m only a few hundred kanji into my study, so I haven’t found any cool kanji that have interesting meanings or anything like that. There are a few simple kanji that I do like, though. I like the fact that 雨 is so simple and to the point. I mean, they’re just raindrops. I also like the 水 and 氷 pair: just add an icicle to water to make ice. Easy!

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#5

Two of the kanji I really like are 凹 and 凸 :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
They were taught on one of the last levels on WaniKani and it was really refreshing to see such easy to recognise kanji at that point.
And for me they did not even look like real kanji, more like Lego bricks or something xD

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#6

I like 骨 because it looks like a running skeleton. 滑

____ 滑 ___ 滑 ___________ 滑 ___
__ 滑 _____________ 滑 _________

:joy:

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#7

I am a big fan of kanji that have nice balance, like 菫, 蕾, 釜, etc. However, if I had to pick one favorite, maybe it’d be 鳳. For some reason it just looks really cool and is part of the word 鳳凰（ほうおう）, which means Chinese pheonix and is I’m guessing where they also got the name for Ho-Oh from Pokemon :rofl:.

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#8

:joy: Yeah, that’s too true!

There is another thing about steadily writing kanji: “muscle memory”. It has happened to me just a couple of times while on the daily review: I see the card and though I don’t quite remember the kanji or its exact shape I let my hand go and… lo and behold! the kanji appears in front of me in the middle of the page in all its glory.

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#9

Indeed, as most things you like, there is never a particular reason but that you like them.

Thank you for the insight of the Japanese people relationship with kanjis. Though I know it is not the same, I have favourite words in the languages I know (and unfavourite ones!), words that I like for the sake of their sound or letter structure.

Thank you also for this one, 永 is indeed a beautiful kanji and forever will be. :yum:

I also do love 卵 (much more than 玉子, which is clarifying but not quite as compelling) and also find that possible origin funny, se non è vero, è ben trovato.

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#10

:joy:

Yes, 雨 is so nice, one of those WYSIWYG kanjis, like 肉 or 羽. And it is a perfect match for 傘!

As for the pair 水-氷, would add 永 to make an everlasting freezing of water. :yum:
You oftentimes get the feeling that a lot of thought was put into devising a particular kanji in order to get to its “optimum” shape in terms of simplicity and economy.

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#11

Indeed, they both belong to that category of unkanjilike kanjis, like its cousin 回. If you put both 凸 and 凹 on top of each other as a 大工 would do you would get 口. :smirk:

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#12

:joy:

That they do, I also like 骨 quite much. I would include 以, which looks like a Lascaux picture of one person kicking another. You would get 以骨______滑 all Pacman style.

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#13

Indeed 鳳 is really beautiful, I didn’t know it. 教えてくれてありがとう!

I also like most kanjis that have 鳥 as the main radical: 島 (a clear example of the “optimum” shape I referred to in my answer to @Neon_Kitsune), 鴨, 嶋 or 鳴. I particularly like 烏, “bird without a line”.

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#14

It’s going to be morbid but for some reason I always liked the shape of 死. I can’t quite explain it, it’s one of the first kanji I learned to recognize and I find it very aesthetically pleasing and elegant. Vastly better than crappy 亡!

I quite like 麗 as well, it’s very memorable and it looks like a strange creature.

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#15

Indeed, 死 is somehow appealing, like to people sitting back-to-back under a stone, the one on the left with the chin on the chest, the other looking straight ahead.

I also like 麗 quite much, the beautiful deer (鹿) been observed by two pair of eyes. However, the mnemonics with which I learned this kanji is Bender’s face.

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#16

For me it’d have to be 姫
I learnt it as one of my first from Tsukihime VN title and it stuck with me.

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#17

Beautiful kanji too, the beautiful princess.

I learned it through this movie, translated as ‘The Princess Blade’, those wonderful translations, right!?

It was originally a manga as can be seen under the ’ 漫画’ section of the article. And then there were other movies prior to the 2001 one which I saw.

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#18

Somehow I tend to like kanji that contain water.
My favorite is 流: it’s fun to write, it visualizes it’s meaning perfectly and the meaning itself is also something that resonates with me.
Runner-ups: 漂、海、潮、泉、水
(Other kanji I’m fond of that don’t contain water and I can currently think of: 炎、美、霞、神)

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#19

鬱 is my spirit animal.

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#20

Fabulous. All 29 strokes of it.

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