Rating: 
Summary: After looking at other Kanji Dictionaries.....
Review: After looking at other Kanji Dictionaries, I take it back. There's nothing wrong with this book's index system. It lacks an index of english meanings to Kanji, but the rest do too. You won't need a seperate Kanji Dictionary if you own this
Rating:
Summary: Its a 4-star winner of its genre, 5-stars is still open
Review: A formidable work which I found essential as a beginning student of Japanese. It will last a lifetime as a text, or at least until the first 996 kanji are completely memorised, which WILL be a lifetime for me. The kanji are ordered in grades according to the 6-grade system used in Japanese schools. I found this useful because this relates to the graded system of testing used in the international Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It's not the way Japanese learn kanji but it is a fascinating source-book for those studying Japanese as a second language. Henshall discounts many common explanations of the origin of kanji eg for EAST, whose common explanation of "sun rising behind trees" he debunks as an error of many centuries standing. I did not give the book 5-stars for the following reasons: (1) It lacks stroke order, so I constantly have to cross-check new kanji with my Kanji Dictionary. (2) It uses romanji. I have come to absolutely subscribe to the theory of my first Japanese language teacher who banned romanji from the classroom and loudly lamented the corruption of thought and understanding it imposed on students of Japanese. Why people who have the interest and motivation to study kanji would want to do so in romanji is certainly beyond my understanding. But obviously Henshall and his editors have given this matter weighty thought and decided otherwise. This book fully deserves 5-stars, but the opportunity for a 5-star kanji guide remains open to others.
Rating:
Summary: After a look at other Kanji Dictionaries
Review: After looking at other Kanji Dictionaries, I take it back. There's nothing wrong with this book's index system. It lacks an index of english meanings to Kanji, but the rest do too. You won't need a seperate Kanji Dictionary if you own this
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely essential aid to understanding Japanese Kanji
Review: Anyone attempting to learn the Japanese language quickly realizes that Kanji is the most difficult of the three
Japanese alphabets to learn. Each kanji can have anywhere from 1 to 42(or so) strokes involved in writing it, and
plain memorization is a Herculean task. Kenneth Henshall, however, has provided the divertable rivers with this
book. Each of the 2000 standard Kanji that the Japanese have learned by the time they've finished school is
indexed by the year it's learned, and each listing has the KUN and 'on' readings listed--just as in a Kanji
Dictionary.. ..the difference is, Kenneth has researched each Kanji's origin as a picture or diagrammed idea, and
explained the reason for the changes from that form under each Kanji. He has also included Mnemonic devices
after each explanation of the origin of the Kanji, to help you remember what the Kanji is drawn like, why, and what
each means.. I have found this book immensely helpful. As a straightforward Kanji Dictionary, it's only so-so,
because it's not organized by stroke order or some similar method.. --but, knowing the reason for each line in a
Kanji helps me to draw them correctly when I need to, interpret them correctly when I see them, and not
accidentally add an extra piece to a Kanji that doesn't belong there. The Mnemonic devices weren't as helpful, to
me--but they may help some.. --all in all, I found this book necessary in order to have any chance at all at
remembering Kanji, and despite it's less than optimum potential as a Kanji Dictionary, it works well enough that I
don't have to buying one until I can afford it. Kanji are facinating, and I've caught myself reading this book when
I should be studying.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely essential aid to understanding Japanese Kanji
Review: Anyone attempting to learn the Japanese language quickly realizes that Kanji is the most difficult of the three Japanese alphabets to learn. Each kanji can have anywhere from 1 to 42(or so) strokes involved in writing it, and plain memorization is a Herculean task. Kenneth Henshall, however, has provided the divertable rivers with this book. Each of the 2000 standard Kanji that the Japanese have learned by the time they've finished school is indexed by the year it's learned, and each listing has the KUN and 'on' readings listed--just as in a Kanji Dictionary.. ..the difference is, Kenneth has researched each Kanji's origin as a picture or diagrammed idea, and explained the reason for the changes from that form under each Kanji. He has also included Mnemonic devices after each explanation of the origin of the Kanji, to help you remember what the Kanji is drawn like, why, and what each means..
I have found this book immensely helpful. As a straightforward Kanji Dictionary, it's only so-so, because it's not organized by stroke order or some similar method.. --but, knowing the reason for each line in a Kanji helps me to draw them correctly when I need to, interpret them correctly when I see them, and not accidentally add an extra piece to a Kanji that doesn't belong there. The Mnemonic devices weren't as helpful, to me--but they may help some.. --all in all, I found this book necessary in order to have any chance at all at remembering Kanji, and despite it's less than optimum potential as a Kanji Dictionary, it works well enough that I don't have to buying one until I can afford it. Kanji are facinating, and I've caught myself reading this book when I should be studying.
Rating:
Summary: Learning the Joyo Kanji
Review: As has already been stated, this book is NOT a Kanji dictionary or a Kanji textbook. If that's what you are looking for, look elsewhere. However, "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters" is excellent as a study tool for actually learning the Joyo Kanji 1 by 1. Considering the fact that each Kanji is supplied with details of its origin, on top of the most common readings and some examples of usage, this book will give the user a greater understanding of Kanji than almost any other Kanji aid out there. Moreover, the Kanji are grouped according to their grade in Japan which makes it useful for studying systematically and especially for those will take the Japanese proficiency test because you know exactly which kanji will be required. Some people gripe about the fact that the stroke order is not given for each Kanji, but this is quite a trivial complaint because I remembering learning the rules of stroke order in about 15 minutes when I first started learning Japanese. Of course, these basic rules for stroke order are given in the introduction of this book. If you are looking for a book to help you learn the Joyo Kanji, please check this book out. Not only is it good as a study tool, but it's ten times more interesting than books that simply lay the Kanji out with no aid to memorization. One person wrote somewhere that foreigners should learn Kanji in the same manner as Japanese children do, a task which essentially takes them 9 years of schooling to complete. My answer to that person is, are you out of your mind??? Not only do most people not have the time or willpower, but Japanese children can already speak most of the words that the Kanji describe so that they have a huge advantage. Everyone needs to find the best method for themselves, but it will be difficult no matter what..(unless you have photographic memory!)
Rating:
Summary: Learning the Joyo Kanji
Review: As has already been stated, this book is NOT a Kanji dictionary or a Kanji textbook. If that's what you are looking for, look elsewhere. However, "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters" is excellent as a study tool for actually learning the Joyo Kanji 1 by 1. Considering the fact that each Kanji is supplied with details of its origin, on top of the most common readings and some examples of usage, this book will give the user a greater understanding of Kanji than almost any other Kanji aid out there. Moreover, the Kanji are grouped according to their grade in Japan which makes it useful for studying systematically and especially for those will take the Japanese proficiency test because you know exactly which kanji will be required. Some people gripe about the fact that the stroke order is not given for each Kanji, but this is quite a trivial complaint because I remembering learning the rules of stroke order in about 15 minutes when I first started learning Japanese. Of course, these basic rules for stroke order are given in the introduction of this book. If you are looking for a book to help you learn the Joyo Kanji, please check this book out. Not only is it good as a study tool, but it's ten times more interesting than books that simply lay the Kanji out with no aid to memorization. One person wrote somewhere that foreigners should learn Kanji in the same manner as Japanese children do, a task which essentially takes them 9 years of schooling to complete. My answer to that person is, are you out of your mind??? Not only do most people not have the time or willpower, but Japanese children can already speak most of the words that the Kanji describe so that they have a huge advantage. Everyone needs to find the best method for themselves, but it will be difficult no matter what..(unless you have photographic memory!)
Rating:
Summary: Worth a second look.
Review: At first glance, this book seemed like a simple listing of kanji with some pretty obsure mnemonics and no help with the stroke order. I'm a beginner student having difficulty with the pure rote method of learning. Later, I had reason to go back to the book and spend some time with it. When I read the introductions and prefaces and things, I found indispensable information. Along with basic instructions on how to do stroke order and count strokes, the author also gives some pretty valuable information about the background of kanji and how to use the book. The appendices make it pretty easy to find a particular kanji either by strokes; or by the "on" or "kun" readings. For example, I was having difficulty remembering the kanji for "ie" or "house". I couldn't find it in the stroke number appendix (probably miscounted the strokes), but I found it in the readings appendix. The listing showed me the roof radical and I understood that, but there are literally hundreds of kanji with that roof. It didn't help. Then it told me about the pig inside and cross referenced the kanji for pig. The mnemonic was "a house looking like a pigsty". I would have needed a mnemonic to remember the mnemonic. Then I looked up the cross-referenced pig kanji. It showed me how it derived from a stylized picture of a pig. Now I can recognize it. Now I know two kanji and don't think I'll forget either of them. For a house, I just put up a roof and put a little pig in it. Works for me. It would still have helped to have included the strokes, but with the instructions in the introduction helping to round out what I'm learning from other sources, I'm beginning to get the hang of that on my own anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 stars for no kana readings & poor calligraphy
Review: Be careful with this book. Some of the entries are not accurate or not used in the Japanese language today. Other characters are only used in the Chinese language. It appears the author has mixed up or assumed that both Japanese and Chinese writing are completely interchangable. This is a good book if you first have a native Japanese cross out the entries and mistakes that are littered throughout this book.
Rating:
Summary: be careful
Review: Be careful with this book. Some of the entries are not accurate or not used in the Japanese language today. Other characters are only used in the Chinese language. It appears the author has mixed up or assumed that both Japanese and Chinese writing are completely interchangable. This is a good book if you first have a native Japanese cross out the entries and mistakes that are littered throughout this book.
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