NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary

by Jack Halpern

Six different ways to search for characters and three comprehensive indexes let even beginners locate entries effortlessly.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Reference, Dictionaries, Language

2232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 1994

Reviews

[Chase · Rating 2 out of 5]

the book is really complicated-there's like 5 ways to look up kanji. There are 4 categories of kanji. there are the left/right kanji, the up/down kanji, the enclosure kanji, and potpouri kanji that just dont fit any of the other 3 categories. The trouble with the last category is that they dont really make sense. Also, there some kanji that seem like they should be in a different category--for instance落. Is this an up/down or is it a left/right? Since there are a bunch of kanji like this, you waste a lot of time looking in the wrong place for them. the book is kind enough to anticipate many of your mistakes and informs you that the kanji you are looking for is located elsewhere. The problem with that is that it wastes a lot of space telling you where to actually find kanji that could be used for putting more kanji in. so all in all there are only like 2500 kanji in a book that's better than 2000 pages.
The good part about the book is all the indexes and appendices are really helpful for various research projects. for example, there is a section at the beginning that explains why there are so many on-yomi for any given kanji.
Over-all, it's an ok-ish dictionary, but I wouldnt run out and buy it. It's not essential to your collection. In fact, it's really pretty pricy--weighing in at about $65. For the money, it's kind of a rip off, really.

[Bmcnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

more info about japanese characters than anyone is ever likely to want, except its eccentric caucasian unicycle-riding editor.