Kanji are the most popular Japanese script out of 3 writing. These characters are called "Ideographs", "Ideograms" or "Pictograms" in the world, because a Kanji Symbols, character express an idea, and represents meaning in a visual way.
For example, some kanji characters are developed like this:
You see, both the 'Sun' Kanji and the 'Tree' Kanji look like the things they represent.However, this is NOT always the case.There are some kanji which don't look at all like the things they represent.
Kanji Compound
Thoese pictorial Kanji that are mentioned above are Kanji characters which have meanings themselves. However, they can be also combined together and can be different Kanji characters. For example, by combining the 'tree' Kanji character together, Kanji characters will have the meaning of "Wood".
The stroke order for Japanese Kanji Symbols
To write Japanese Kanji Symbols, there are the basic rules to apply Kanji characters. There are some aspects of stroke order which plays an important role in the overall feeling of the kanji. For example, the kanji symbols for 'tree' is written like the following stroke order:
However, because of the increasing popularity of computers, a lot of Japanese young people, in fact, don't really care about this rule.
Japanese language contains more than 80,000 kanji symbols. Given below are some of the basic kanji you should learn.
 (One) |  (Day) |
 (Two) |  (Moon) |
 (Three) |  (Fire) |
 (Four) |  (Water) |
 (Five) |  (Tree) |
 (Six) |  (Gold) |
 (Seven) |  (Earth,Soil) |
 (Eight) |  (Big) |
 (Nine) |  (Small) |
 (Ten) |  (Book) |
 (Hundred) |  (Person) |
 (Thousand) |  (Mouth) |
 (Tenthousand) |  (Rice,Paddy Fields) |
What's the difference between Japanese and Chinese Kanji?
Why Japanese Kanji look like the Chinese Symbols?
Historically, the Kanji Writing System was imported from China, but as time the time went by, kanji writing has evolved into a part of the Japanese Writing System by using the borrowed ideograms to indicate pronunciation.Although we use Kanji characters as much as Chinese people use, Japanese people use less Kanji characters comparing to Chinese people.
Even if you look at some of the Japanese culture, there are some adoption of cultural and religious materials from China too. For instance, Chinese herbal medicine is quite popular in Japan.
So, are they DIFFERENT?
Many Western people may be thinking that Japanese Kanji and Chinese Kanji are exactly the same. They look very similar. However, they are very different to Japanese kanji in structure.
Although the Japanese adapted Chinese characters into their langauge, they disregard the original meaning in Chinese.
Kanji Reading
Wtih Kanji, there are 2 ways of reading.
1. Onyomi Reading - It is Chinese Reading, and developed from the original Chinese pronunciation but as the time went by, the Japanese writing system has adaopted and became a part of the Japanese language. It is often used with the kanji compounds, and naming English names in Kanji.
2.Kunyomi Reading - It is Japanese Reading, and usually used with a single kanji character. For instance, if the following kanji is read, it is pronounced: "Ki" with Kunyomi Reading.
But, if it is combined with another Kanji character, it can be read differently with Onyomi reading.
