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James W. Heisig

Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters Paperback – March 31 2011

by James W. Heisig (Author)

2,027 ratings

4.2 on Goodreads

865 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Remembering the Kanji

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Updated to include the 196 new kanji approved by the Japanese government in 2010 as “general-use” kanji, the sixth edition of this popular text aims to provide students 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.

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ISBN-10

0824835921
ISBN-13

978-0824835927
Edition

6th
Publisher

University of Hawaii Press
Publication date

March 31 2011
Book 1 of 3

Remembering the Kanji
Language

English
Dimensions

15.24 x 2.82 x 22.86 cm
Print length

496 pages

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About the Author

James W. Heisig is a permanent research fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Hawaii Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 31 2011
Edition ‏ : ‎ 6th
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0824835921
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0824835927
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 658 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.82 x 22.86 cm
Book 1 of 3 ‏ : ‎ Remembering the Kanji
�鶹�� Rank: #12,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Japanese Textbooks
- #17 in Alphabet (Books)
- #28 in Language Study & Teaching (Books)
Customer Reviews:
2,027 ratings

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James W. Heisig

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James W. Heisig, is emeritus professor and research fellow of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, located on the campus of Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. His books, translations, and edited collections,which have appeared in 13 languages,currently number 83 volumes.

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Customers say

Customers find the book invaluable, effective, and fun for learning Kanji. They mention it builds off of simple Kanji first, then gets more advanced as the book progresses. Readers describe the content as amazing, revolutionary, and the visuals as powerful. They say the stories are visually creative and create strong imaginative memories.

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Effectiveness Content Visuals

12 customers mention "Effectiveness"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book extremely effective, useful, and the best tool ever. They say it works great for creative people.

"It does what it does very well and no more. I am at almost the 500 mark. On my reviews I am getting 95% recall...." Read more

"...This first volume is effective for what it sets out to do (getting you writing), and even if the second volume is terrible I will have still cut my..." Read more

"Nothing wrong with the method, but they desperately need to update some of the keywords to those found in modern English...." Read more

"...It offers a teaching method that is virtually unknown yet extremely effective...." Read more

9 customers mention "Content"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the content amazing, invaluable, and revolutionary. They say it's the best book on Kanji they've read.

"Great book" Read more

"...Overall, an invaluable resource and a must-buy for Japanese learners also committed to the goal of literacy." Read more

"This book is simply amazing...." Read more

"This is a, dare I say it, revolutionary book. It offers a teaching method that is virtually unknown yet extremely effective...." Read more

5 customers mention "Visuals"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the visuals in the book powerful and creative. They say the little stories are visual, making reading the characters a much more visually creative experience. Readers also say the book is interesting and a fun way to learn Kanji.

"It's interesting and a fun way to learn kanji. However, some words are outdated or rarely used in Japan though...." Read more

"...will not, and with this it becomes easy to solidify and create strong imaginative memories...." Read more

"...All these little stories are so visual and when you really "see" these stories, it makes every Kanji you read light up and conjure up a..." Read more

"...book really gives you an intuitive method that forces you to connect imagination with your memory which makes remembering a lot easier...." Read more

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Robert Crompton
Unbelievably useful for the proper digestion of Kanji.
Reviewed in Canada on April 6, 2012
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After reams and reams of paper trying to remember roughly the appropriate meanings and writings of Kanji, the method outlined in Heisig's book has been totally refreshing and revitalising. Of course, it will not aid your pronunciation in any form, yet, frankly, I do not think I would have even attempted to learn the Kanji in a systematic way but for Heisig's method.

Alongside the RTK website for stories you have difficulty with, to get the maximum value from this product, you should use an SRS system such as Anki in order to maintain knowledge of the Kanji you have already learned. It is more than realistic to have a 95% perfect recollection rate (at 0-10 seconds a Kanji) from the keywords that you have seen before, and a 75% recollection rate of 'new' Kanji, even when one progresses in to the latter half of the 2200 Kanji that comprise the book. The SRS is a useful way to focus your attention to the way in which some stories will work for your thought patterns, and others will not, and with this it becomes easy to solidify and create strong imaginative memories.

The thought of having to write out hundreds of several stroke characters perfectly from visual memory is, for me at least, ludicrous, and as such, splitting each Kanji into simple 'primitives', of which there is rarely any more than 3, and who's location is indicated by the progression of the story, makes things much simpler. It is widely documented that many feats of memory are accomplished using mnemonic techniques, and thus, if you struggle with Kanji, it is not that Kanji are intrinsically hard, or that you are not up to the task, rather, it is more likely that your method of learning them has not been good enough.

It may take you less than a month of fairly intensive study, or much longer, but there is no doubt that this is the most efficient way I have come across to learn the precise writing, and a usable meaning of the Kanji. Though one does not learn the Kanji pronunciation readings, the task of allocating these becomes much, much easier once the Kanji themselves become readable. It is for this reason that native Chinese speakers have been shown to acquire Japanese much more quickly than their Western counterparts. The sounds and grammar as arguably just as different, but the edge of relative literacy provides a platform for all study. This book can level that playing field.

Don't be afraid of Kanji, grow to love them!

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5 people found this helpful

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Alexandre
Used as intended, worth its weight in gold for Japanese learners
Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2020
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Before starting on a course of learning the Kanji using this book, readers MUST read Heisig's preface as here he discusses exactly how and why the book was written this way. RTK is not to be used as a dictionary and thus will not provide the readers with pronunciations or compound words. However, used as a learning tool for its title purpose—namely, remembering the fundamental meaning of all 2200-or-so single kanji characters—it is nothing short of brilliant. With diligent revision and study, it is quite feasible to learn 20-30 kanji per day using Heisig's mnemonic method. The book does provide the proper stroke order for the characters as well as the total number of strokes. At first, it will seem a little strange, as the words are grouped according to what Heisig calls "primitive elements," rather than by words of related meaning, which is quite unlike how most language learners are used to consuming vocabulary. Once you get used to his system, however, it will seem perfectly natural and you might start inventing your own similar mnemonic "stories." Overall, an invaluable resource and a must-buy for Japanese learners also committed to the goal of literacy.

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6 people found this helpful

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Another Brian
It does what it does and does it well.
Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
It does what it does very well and no more.
I am at almost the 500 mark. On my reviews I am getting 95% recall. Sure I won't be able to read or write but what used to be a bunch of random confusing WTF strokes are taking form as something recognizable and writeable and identifiable with English keywords.

Consider it much like a hockey player or boxer hitting the gym and running before the regular season. Sure weightlifting and running does nothing to teach you how to be a better hockey player of boxer, but once you get into it, the extra strength size and endurance will allow you to go further than someone without that base fitness.

Only downside is that too many stories are completely useless and later on he gives up on providing them. Also he seems to encourage silly mental images which no doubt work but just annoy me. On the plus side you can often come up with your own, and there are sources of better stories on line to help you remember stuff and inspire you to come up with better ideas on your own. Without using an Anki deck with stories I don't think I would have gotten almost 25% of the way through. Anki BTW is a program that serves as flash cards and uses a SRS to review them in a more efficient manner. Free unless you are on one of those I-whatevers and if you are, I guess you are used to overpaying ;)

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Pamela
By far the best way to learn the meaning of kanji
Reviewed in Canada on November 19, 2014
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I finished the book a week ago and I'm now on the rtk3(skipping the rtk2). It took me about 100 days as I was learning 22 kanji a day(some days I'd do a few more or less) and I found it was a great method and now that've I've started learning vocabulary and what not I find remembering the kanji to go with them extremely easy!

The only things I don't like about this book is that I found the stroke order was omitted for most kanji and I had to look up a lot of them. The book says they should be obvious but I didn't find (some of) them obvious at all. Plus I found out a few of them have the wrong stroke order in the book but that being said the book DID teach me the stroke order of the kanji and I don't have any problem remembering now. There was also a few type o's in the book; wrong kanji, wrong primitives listed, etc but they are pretty easy to pick out.

All and all I'd say this is the best way to learn kanji. I was very happy to find this and I feel so confident with my Japanese studies now.
If anyone is interested, I'm using a study plan I found on nihongoshark.com. Their ebook explains it and I'm really happy with it so far :)

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Thomas D. Reader
If you want to learn kanji fast, this is it.
Reviewed in France on January 4, 2019
Verified Purchase

Absolutely brilliant book.

I usually don’t write reviews and I read most of that brick in a library but I had to own it because it is the only intelligent and efficient alternative to rote learning I found. And believe me I looked. Apps, complete methods, websites, YouTube videos, every book on the shelf, you name it... this works.

One thing though. This is not for the slackers out here. Actually the more committed you are to this method, the faster and more durably you learn. Everything adds up and if you just kind of remember that kanji number 200 from three months ago when you are learning kanji 1954, this won’t work.

If you really - I mean really - want to learn kanji, look no further, stop procrastinating and go for a hundred kanji a week. I bought this book having read it already, that’s how much I’m grateful for it.

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Silva Debonair
Melhor método autodidático!!!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 13, 2016
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Esse livro possui a chave para o aprendizado de kanji. O método utilizado pelo autor de memória imaginativa realmente funciona, comigo esta indo muito bem e continuo lendo incansávelmente. Ao invés de memorizar uma definição escrita para cada kanji você deve imaginar os cenários dado no livro e associá-lo com a definição do kanji, tal cenário ficará gravado em sua memória, e junto do cenário, o kanji. Esse método é a melhor definição da frase "Uma imagem vale mais que mil palavras". Recomendo não só esse livro, mas a série toda com os volumes 2 e 3 de "Remembering the kanji" e o livro "Remembering the kana" do mesmo autor que se faz INDISPENSÁVEL, pois você precisa ler tal livro antes de seguir com o aprendizado do volume 2 de "Remembering the kanji". Para que possa usar de 100% do potencial desse método é altamente aconselhável o uso do aplicativo de flashcards do mesmo nome do livro que serve para vc rever os caracteres já aprendidos a qualquer hora para evitar que caiam no esquecimento. Boa sorte a todos que queiram aprender o alfabeto Japonês com esse método, é o melhor!!!

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Maaat Baaasss
tanti kanji, sintetico, metodo efficiente
Reviewed in Italy on April 2, 2015
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L'autore applica il metodo già esistente delle associazioni mentali ai kanji.
Avevo utilizzato questo metodo per memorizzare testi scolastici, già lo conoscevo quindi, molto funzionale.
Il metodo si basa sulla memoria visiva (non fotografica!), ci si inventano delle piccole storie sul particolare da ricordare ,e ce le ricorderemo molto facilmente anche dopo tanto tempo. Poi dalla storiella si ricava la parola da ricordare.
Nel primo libro ti aiuta a ricordarli con parole chiave che non sono l'esatta traduzione, e con storielle inventate.
Nel secondo aggiunge la traduzione.
Il terzo è piu avanzato.
Presenti tantissimi kanji , circa 2000 nel primo e secondo (dovrebbero essere gli stessi) e altri circa 1000 nel terzo. Per un totale di 3000 kanji !
La divisione dello studio in memorizzazione (nel primo libro) e traduzione solamente dopo (nel secondo), penso sia valida. Inutile imparare subito i significati se nella lettura si scambia un kanji per un altro.
I libri sono molto sintetici, e con le giuste spiegazioni ad inizio capitolo.
Per ogni simbolo c'è una parola chiave da ricordare, una storiella, e la sequenza dei tratti per scrivere il kankji nella giusta maniera, e nel secondo libro la traduzione e la pronucia scritta in hiragana.

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The Professor
Kanji drawing and meaning
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2016
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The mnemonics are a little cringeworthy at times (lol), but they're good starter ideas if you can think of a better one.
The book itself is well written and well paced.

This will show you a logical list of the 2000+ kanji: both how to draw them in their correct sequential stroke order and what they actually mean as a pictograph.

What it doesn't mention, and I have paired this up nicely with this: (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/4805311703), is the on/kunyomi pronunciations and some example words/phrases that you might see each kanji in.

For example, this book will show you how to draw the kanji for 'moon'/'flesh'/'body part' but it won't then tell you that it can be pronounced "GATSU"/"GETSU"/"tsuki" nor that you might see it written in ICHIGATSU (meaning January = One + moon). Conversely, the second book doesn't include what this book shows.
Together, the two books cover everything you'd want unless hunting for kanji outside the standard list, though the kanji are not listed in the same order of course, so there's a bit of page flicking. I would advise sticking with this book's order, as it has been specially written to facilitate ease of learning stroke order patterns rather than purely by level of difficulty of concept/stroke complexity.

If you can find the kanji you're looking for in this book by how to draw it, or use this book to work out how it's drawn indirectly, it's then incredibly easy to count up the number of total brush strokes (and the general direction it's drawn in) and then look it up in a kanji dictionary or in the index.

It's going to take a LOOOOOONG time to learn these, but every journey starts with a single step, right?

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Ken
Pinch of Salt
Reviewed in Singapore on March 7, 2025
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For readers who learnt chinese langauage, the book doesnt really make sense. But probably good for western readers who are learning oriental characters for the first time.

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