Rating: 
Summary: Fair...not great
Review: There certainly is a lot of information in this book, and I found it occasionally useful, but as a study aid it failed me. It was easier to copy Japanese from textbooks onto notecards than study this book, and for looking up Japanese, a real dictionary is far superior.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a Study Aid NOT a Textbook
Review: There seems to a lot of mis-information about this book. This is an excellent book, but it is not a kanji dictionary nor is it a kanji text book. It does not have stroke order, it only has a couple of (useless) words for each kanji, and tends to over look kun readings. This book should be used in conjunction with a proper kanji text book. It should only be on your bookshelf after you have a kanji text and dictionary. 4 stars for what it is, an aid.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent reference and learning aid (for some)
Review: This book gives a paragraph-sized summary of the origins of each of the 1945 basic kanji (selected by the Japanese Ministry of Education for general use and taught in grades 1-6). Where the etymology is not helpful, Henshall invents (or recounts) some mnemonic tricks. The etymology I find fascinating and helpful, but that's the kind of thing that varies a lot between individuals. Where the etymology is misleading, the mnemonics Henshall invents (or recounts) sometimes work for me, sometimes not. But it's a tough job, and I think batting .500 here (for any one individual reader) is an excellent performance. Taking a step back, Henshall's book offers an interesting mix of visual and verbal clues, and it won't always work for anyone. But if you're academically minded (or a history buff, or an avid reader), you'll probably get a lot of use out of this. The Tuttle flash cards would probably be a good complement to this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Kanji Study Aid
Review: This book is comprised of the entire jouyou kanji set (1,945 basic characters for every day use). This is a great book for any student of Japanese because it indexes the kanji by grade level, has handwritten versions of the kanji, sample compounds, etymology of the characters, and provides a useful mnemonic for memorization. The only drawbacks are that the book does not list the stroke order or the main radical for a given character. I feel that this book is useful for any level of study in Japanese.
Rating:
Summary: The best Kanji reference book I have found
Review: This book is easily the best Kanji reference book I have seen. It describes each of the about 2000 standard Kanji characters in detail, and explains the history of the character, i.e. how the Kanji evolved to the highly stylish style used today. This helps you understand what the character and its strokes mean, and makes it easier to remember the character and its readings. Henshall also offers mnemonics related to the character meaning and the description of its origin, which you can use as a memory aid. My only complaint about this book is that it does not show the stroke order. My other kanji book does this for the first 1000 characters, and I find this very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but there are better for learning
Review: This book is very interesting if you want to understand the origin of the Japanese characters. If you want to remember how to write them, it is very poor. There are no stroke order diagrams, and the mnemonics are too weak to remember 2000 characters. If you want a guide to remembering how to write the kanji, get Heisig's book. That really works.
Rating:
Summary: The best reference book for individual Kanji
Review: This book orders the Kanji according to Japan's "grade" system. It describes in detail the origin of the modern character which helps understand it making it easier to remember. This also helps to decipher unknown Kanji based on their components. Each Kanji also comes with a helpful pneumonic phrase and a short list of common compounds. The Kanji are indexed by number of strokes and on/kun readings. The only shortfall of this book (in my opinion) is that it doesn't show stroke order (just count). BUT!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Insufficient
Review: Unfourtunitly there are not many good books for learning Nipponese. This one is a sterling example. The author choose only to list the Jouyou kanji while leaving out some more useful ones. There is no sequential drawings to demonstrate stroke order of complicated characters. There is no indication of the radicals for characteres. (You will need to know this to find a character in a kanwa jiten) There are only three words listed for each character. The reading indexing in the back of the book is alphabetical instead of how it would be in a kokugo dictionary that a reader of this book will (hopefully) soon be using. Lastly usnig the Mnemonics listed in this book or devising your own in such a manner as to aid retention will, in my opinion, only hurt you in the long run. Instead of this book I highly recommend ISBN: 4889960759.
Rating:
Summary: Kanji primer for Brett
Review: Yes, my aging bachelor, they are called the gakushuu kanji. However, if we turn to Daijirin (2nd Edition), we find: ‚«‚傤‚¢‚-‚©‚ñ‚¶ ‚¯‚¤\ y‹³ˆçŠ¿Žšz
‹`-±‹³ˆç‚ÌŠúŠÔ‚É"Ç‚Ý`‚«‚Æ‚à‚É‚Å‚«‚é‚悤‚ÉŽw"±‚·‚邱‚Æ‚ª*K-v‚Å‚ ‚é‚Æ‚³‚ê‚Ä‚¢‚銿Žš‚Ì'ÊÌB`ŒêR‹c‰ï‚ªA1948"Niº~a23j‚Éu"--pŠ¿Žš*Ê*\v‚Æ‚µ‚Ä"ª"ªˆêŽš‚ð`I'èB‚»‚ÌŒãŠwKŽw"±-v-̂̉ü'ù‚É"º‚Á‚Ä77"N‚É‹ã‹ã~ZŽš‚ÉA89"N‚ɈêZZ~ZŽš‚Æ‚È‚Á‚½B See also http://homepage2.nifty.com/mogmog/kanji_question.htm Please explain the difference between the kyouiku kanji and gakushuu kanji, which seems to exist only in your rather roomy cranium. As the terms are synonymous, you may have a bit of difficulty with this task.
Rating:
Summary: Kanji primer for Brett
Review: Yes, my aging bachelor, they are called the gakushuu kanji. However, if we turn to Daijirin (2nd Edition), we find: ‚«‚傤‚¢‚-‚©‚ñ‚¶ ‚¯‚¤\ y‹³ˆçŠ¿Žšz
‹`-±‹³ˆç‚ÌŠúŠÔ‚É"Ç‚Ý'‚«‚Æ‚à‚É‚Å‚«‚é‚悤‚ÉŽw"±‚·‚邱‚Æ‚ª•K-v‚Å‚ ‚é‚Æ‚³‚ê‚Ä‚¢‚銿Žš‚Ì'ÊÌB'ŒêR‹c‰ï‚ªA1948"Niº˜a23j‚Éu"--pŠ¿Žš•Ê•\v‚Æ‚µ‚Ä"ª"ªˆêŽš‚ð'I'èB‚»‚ÌŒãŠwKŽw"±-v-̂̉ü'ù‚É"º‚Á‚Ä77"N‚É‹ã‹ã˜ZŽš‚ÉA89"N‚ɈêZZ˜ZŽš‚Æ‚È‚Á‚½B See also http://homepage2.nifty.com/mogmog/kanji_question.htm Please explain the difference between the kyouiku kanji and gakushuu kanji, which seems to exist only in your rather roomy cranium. As the terms are synonymous, you may have a bit of difficulty with this task.
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