Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters

by James W. Heisig

The aim of this book is to provide the student of Japanese with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to remember. It is intended not only for the beginner, but also for the more advanced student looking for some relief from the constant frustration of forgetting how to write the kanji, or for a way to systematize what he or she already knows. The author begins with writing the kanji because—contrary to first impressions—it is in fact simpler than learning how to the pronounce them. By ordering the kanji according to their component parts or “primitive elements,” and then assigning each of these parts a distinct meaning with its own distinct image, the student is led to harness the powers of “imaginative memory” to learn the various combinations that make up the kanji. In addition, each kanji is given its own key word to represent the meaning, or one of the principal meanings, of that character. These key words provide the setting for a particular kanji’s “story,” whose protagonists are the primitive elements. In this way, one is able to complete in a few short months a task that would otherwise take years. Armed with the same skills as Chinese or Korean students, who know the meaning and writing of the kanji but not their Japanese pronunciations, one is then in a much better position to learn the readings (which are treated in a separate volume). Remembering the Kanji has helped tens of thousands of students advance towards literacy at their own pace, and to acquire a facility that traditional methods have long since given up on as all but impossible for those not raised with the kanji from childhood. The 6th edition has been updated to include the 196 new kanji approved by the government in 2010 as “general-use” kanji.Also available as an Apple e-book.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, Reference, Language, Nonfiction, Textbooks

490 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2020

Reviews

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having worked through the book and learned the 2200 Kanji, I can speak for the efficiency of Heisig's method. While the method is great, I highly recommend looking up the Kanji in a dictionary parallel to going through the book. My experince was that the single word used for the Kanji in the book was often not enough to understand the Kanji's meaning. I also found it useful to add some extra 'primitives' where I found them lacking and give other primitives meanings of my own rather than using the ones in the book, which sometimes were a bit unrelatable.

Overall, I recommend the book and by knowing the meanings of the Kanjis, I already feel like I can understand the gist of what's going on in news articles, without any other Japanese knowledge. I can't speak for the book's sequels or how well this book works in a larger Japanese study programme though, since I have only studied the Kanjis so far and not any other Japanese. Nonetheless, I enjoyed working through the book and I'm looking forward to continuing my studies. I'm sure that what I've learned will prove useful.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remembering To Stop Forgetting To Remember

This is an outstanding book to grasp the Kanji character system of the Japanese language.

Still, I count this language as the most difficult I have learned, but it is very rewarding.

Great book by Heisig on how to best retain the Kanji characters.

Definitely recommend getting this book if you are looking to learn and remember the Kanji

Check it out!

4.6/5

[Brandon O'Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Use this alongside an anki deck and you'll be set for kanji for the rest of your Japanese reading life.
The inclusion of brush strokes also great for anyone learning to write as well, but recognition is all you need for effective reading; with it, nuance, meaning, pronunciation and readings will come naturally. Absolutely foundational and essential in my opinion for kickstarting your learning via immersion.
I did about 40 new ones a day and knocked it out in 3 months on anki.

[Aries · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know this book is regarded as a must have among the frenzied anime fanboys of reddit, but this is a waste of time if you want to learn any practical kanji.

This book is basically what Latin is to English. Yes, I could sit here learning Latin to get better at English, or I could save all that time and just learn English directly instead!

I absolutely love kanji. It's my favorite thing to study about Japanese. But this book makes me hate learning anything involving kanji. It takes away all the fun away and pretends that if you don't use this super special secret method you'll never learn kanji! Don't believe it. Kanji is not that hard once you get used to it and it's no longer scary-looking. You don't have to break down every kanji into some pointless story to remember it and use it. Actually, doing this method makes me remember kanji less!

For example, I quickly recognized the kanji set for 'library' just by going through a textbook and seeing it in context. But when I was being a silly person who was using RTK, I couldn't recognize a simple 'now' kanji when I saw it outside of RTK until I got a textbook and saw it being used frequently.

I promise you can recognize kanji easily without RTK. Save your sanity, this book is not useful and a complete waste of time.

[charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes about 4 month to finish this with daily 1-2 hour sessions. The only issue is that the author is American and some stories (associations) are based on american memes which I personally had some issues visualising. However the gist of the method is an exercise in imagination so making your own stories is a part of the process.
Perhaps it's an overkill for someone who just want to learn basic Japanese, but for those who intent to learn reading and writing it seems to be more optimal than traditional ways

[Victor Hofstetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was my bible while learning Japanese. An absolute must-read for anyone on the journey to learn the language. I would recommend picking it up even as a beginner—the earlier you start familiarizing yourself with Kanji the better, and Heisig's method is amazing for that.

[Bobbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely logical but missing the Japanese pronunciation of the words (in furigana or romaji). Big miss.

[Wayne Marsh]

Good, even though some of the mnemonics are a little inconsistent and outdated. Feels like it just needs one more draft, but after however many decades it's probably not getting one.

[Phoenix]

Very useful introduction for kanji.