| Chinese characters |
|---|
 |
Collation and standards
|
Homographs and readings |
 |
| Japanese writing |
|---|
| Components |
| Uses |
| Transliteration |
InJapanese,kokuji (国字; "national characters") orwasei kanji (和製漢字; "Japanese-made kanji") arekanji created in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Like most Chinese characters, they are primarily formed by combining existing characters—though using combinations that are not used in Chinese.
Since kokuji are generally devised for existing native words, they usually only have nativekun readings. However, they occasionally also have a Chineseon reading derived from a related kanji, such as働 (dō, 'work'), which takes itson pronunciation from動 (dō, 'move'). In rare cases, a kokuji may only have anon reading, such as腺 (sen, 'gland'), which was derived from泉 (sen, 'spring, fountain') for use in medical terminology.
The majority of kokuji aresemantic compounds, meaning that they are composed of two (or more) characters with relevant meanings. For example,働 ('work') is composed of亻('person' radical) plus動 ('move'). This is in contrast to Chinese kanji, which are overwhelminglyphono-semantic compounds. This is because the phonetic element of phono-semantic kanji is always based on theon reading, which most kokuji don't have, leaving semantic compounding as the only alternative. Other examples include榊 'sakaki tree', formed from木 'tree' and神 'deity' (literally 'divine tree'), and辻 'crossroads' formed from辶 'road' and十 'cross'.
Kokuji are especially common for describing species of flora and fauna including a very large number of fish such as鰯 (sardine),鱈 (codfish),鮴 (seaperch), and鱚 (sillago), and trees such as樫 (evergreen oak),椙 (Japanese cedar),椛 (birch,maple) and柾 (spindle tree).[1]
The termkokuji in Japanese can refer to any character created outside of China, including Koreangukja (國字, 국자) and Vietnamesechữ Nôm.Wasei kanji refers specifically to kanji invented in Japan.
Historically, some kokuji date back to very early Japanese writing, being found in theMan'yōshū, (for example,鰯iwashi, meaning 'sardine', dates to theNara period during the 8th century,) while they have continued to be created as late as the late 19th century, when a number of characters were coined in theMeiji era for new scientific concepts. For example, some characters were produced as regular compounds for some (but not all) SI units, such as粁 (米 'meter' +千 'thousand, kilo-') for kilometer,竏 (立 'liter' +千) for kiloliter, and瓩 (瓦 'gram' +千) for kilogram. However, SI units in Japanese today are almost exclusively written using rōmaji or katakana such asキロメートル or㌖ for kilometer,キロリットル for kiloliter, andキログラム or㌕ for kilogram.[2]
In Japan, the kokuji category is strictly defined as characters whoseearliest appearance is in Japan.[3] If a character appears earlier in the Chinese literature, it is not considered a kokuji even if the character was independently coined in Japan and unrelated to the Chinese character (meaning "not borrowed from Chinese"). In other words, kokuji are not simply characters that were made in Japan, but characters that werefirst made in Japan. An illustrative example isankō (鮟鱇;monkfish). This spelling was created in Edo period Japan from theateji (phonetic kanji spelling)安康 for the existing wordankō by adding the魚 radical to each character—the characters were "made in Japan". However,鮟 is not considered kokuji, as it is found in ancient Chinese texts as a corruption of鰋 (魚匽), 'catfish'.鱇 is considered kokuji, as it has not been found in any earlier Chinese text. Casual listings may be more inclusive, including characters such as鮟.[note 1] Another example is搾, which is sometimes not considered kokuji due to its earlier presence as a corruption of Chinese榨, "to press or extract juices".
There are hundreds ofkokuji in existence.[4] Many are rarely used, but a number have become commonly used components of the written Japanese language. These include the following:
Jōyō kanji has about nine kokuji; there is some dispute over classification, but the following are generally included:[citation needed]
Jinmeiyō kanji:
Hyōgaiji kanji:
Some of these characters (for example,腺, "gland")[5] have been introduced to China; additionally,Standard Mandarin readings are assigned to some kokuji used in Japanesetoponymy, for example by theGuobiao standard GB/T 17693.10.[6] In some cases, the Chinese reading is theinferred Chinese reading, interpreting the character as a phono-semantic compound (as in howon readings are sometimes assigned to these characters in Chinese), while, in other cases (such as働), the Japaneseon reading is borrowed (in general this differs from the modern Chinese pronunciation of this phonetic). Similar coinages occurred to a more limited extent in Korea and Vietnam.