Bamboo Hermitage

Japanese writing system comprises of three types of alphabet which are kanji, hiragana and katakana. Japanese also use Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.

Brief History of Kanji
How Many Kanji Characters Are There?
Hiragana and Katakana

Kanji are the logograms literally mean Chinese characters or Han (Dynasty) characters.

Origin of kanji may trace back to oracle bone script of Shang dynasty (1600BCE - 1046BCE). People used bones of animals and tortoisehells for oracle, and glyphs were carved on bones and shells to record the observations. Bronze script was also used during Shang and Zhou (1046BCE - 256BCE) dynasties.

Later, as the scripts changed into more abstracted forms, numerous variants were developed in different regions causing some linguistic confusions. This brought Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of Qin Dynasty (221BCE - 206BCE), to constitute integrated linguistic system called small seal script. Small seal script is accounted as macrobian script which survived even it was dropped from standardized script after Early Han Dynasty (206BCE - 8AD). Artists and scholars of succeeding generations recongnized its elegance and used them in seals, calligraphies and sculptures. This script can be seen now in seals and logos adding premium accent.

Clerical script emerged soon after Shi Huangdi standardized small seal script. In contrast with its concinnous appearance, small seal script was too comlicated to be implemented in daily affairs. As number of administrations increased, the officials faced the necessity to develop simplified script to expedite administrative processes. When Han took over Qin, Han adopted clerical script as standard linguistic system.

Three other simplified scripts started to develop after Han Dynasty when demands of handwriting and printing proliferated throughout the realm. These scripts are called grass script, running script and standard script.

Glass script enabled people to write words quickly, but it needed thorough education to master because shapes were deformed too much. Situations got even complex when various lineages started to adopt their own glass script. Its name derived from "rough draft" because Chinese (and Japanese) call it "grass paper". Contemporary Japanese usually limit this script only in artistic fields such as traditional poetry and calligraphy due to its inconvenience for daily usage.

Running script was introduced when people scribbled down clerical script. This script positions itself between grass script and standard script. It has cursive characteristics, but easily learnt because it is not deformed as grass script. Contemporary Japanese use running script in casual scenes.

Grass and running scripts simplified kanji characters by writing down continuously and abbreviating number of strokes. They are sometimes called cursive scripts.

Standard script is most common script. Unlike cursive styles of grass and running scripts, standard script shows each stroke separately and independently. This script was sophiscated during Tang Dynasty (618AD - 907AD). Contemporary Japanese use this in formal situations and in publications.

Kanji were introduced to Japan when they were imported from China and Korean penninsula during 5th and 6th centuries.
At first, Japanese adopted Kanji to represent Japanese sounds. This type of linguistic system is called Man'yôgana.
Later, Japanese started to use Kanji to represent both meanings and sounds. Also, Japanese developed some original characters.

This depends on how we categorize kanji. Numbers and types of characters varies in each eras and  regions. Contemporary Chinese and Japanese have developed their own systems as well.

Currently, Japanese government established three categories of kanji that are assumed mandatory in social activities. Three categories are Kyôiku kanji (kanji for education), Jôyô kanji (kanji for daily use) and Jinmeiyô kanji (kanji for people's name). There are 1006 characters for Kyôiku kanji. Jôyô kanji contains 1,945 characters comprises of Kyôiku kanji plus an additional 939 characters. Jinmeiyô kanji are 2,928 characters comprises of Jôyô kanji plus an additional 983 characters. This means Japanese civil names must selected from 2,928 characters. But, ofcourse there are much much more characters. If it is pseudonym, pen name or motto, we can select characters from larger alternatives.

Japanese dictionary "Daikanwa Jiten", completed in 2000, includes over 50,000 characters. Chinese dictionary "Zhonghua Zihai", published in 1994, includes 85,568 characters.

At Bamboo Hermitage, we use over 12,500 characters. But, in many cases, choices are narrowed down to about 5,000 characters because some of characters are too rare to be used.

Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries which were developed by simplifying Man'yôgana (kanji that were first introduced to Japan).

There are 109 characters for both hiragana and katakana that are used in contemporary Japan. For its simplified forms and lesser numbers of character, Japanese children first learn hiragana and katakana.

Also, these two syllabaries are used to show the pronunciation of kanji. Japanese writing system is compound of kanji, hiragana and katakana because some words cannot be  expressed with kanji. Hiragana are used as particles and suffixes which are attached to kanji. Katakana are usually used to represent foreign words and loanwords.