Kokuji
In Japanese, or are kanji 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 native kun readings. However, they occasionally also have a Chinese on reading derived from a related kanji, such as , which takes its on pronunciation from . In rare cases, a kokuji may only have an on reading, such as , which was derived from for use in medical terminology.
The majority of kokuji are semantic compounds, meaning that they are composed of two characters with relevant meanings. For example, is composed of plus . This is in contrast to Chinese kanji, which are overwhelmingly phono-semantic compounds. This is because the phonetic element of phono-semantic kanji is always based on the on reading, which most kokuji don't have, leaving semantic compounding as the only alternative. Other examples include 'sakaki tree', formed from 'tree' and 'deity', and 'crossroads' formed from 'road' and 'cross'.
Kokuji are especially common for describing species of flora and fauna including a very large number of fish such as , , , and , and trees such as , , and .
Term
The term kokuji in Japanese can refer to any character created outside of China, including Korean gukja and Vietnamese chữ Nôm. Wasei kanji refers specifically to kanji invented in Japan.History
Historically, some kokuji date back to very early Japanese writing, being found in the Man'yōshū, while they have continued to be created as late as the late 19th century, when a number of characters were coined in the Meiji era for new scientific concepts. For example, some characters were produced as regular compounds for some SI units, such as for kilometer, for kiloliter, and for kilogram. However, SI units in Japanese today are almost exclusively written using rōmaji or katakana such as or for kilometer, for kiloliter, and or for kilogram.In Japan, the kokuji category is strictly defined as characters whose earliest appearance is in Japan. 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. In other words, kokuji are not simply characters that were made in Japan, but characters that were first made in Japan. An illustrative example is. This spelling was created in Edo period Japan from the ateji for the existing word ankō by adding the radical to each character—the characters were "made in Japan". However, is not considered kokuji, as it is found in ancient Chinese texts as a corruption of 鰋, 'catfish'. is considered kokuji, as it has not been found in any earlier Chinese text. Casual listings may be more inclusive, including characters such as. Another example is, which is sometimes not considered kokuji due to its earlier presence as a corruption of Chinese 榨, "to press or extract juices".
Examples
There are hundreds of kokuji in existence. 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:
- どう dō, はたら hatara "work", the most commonly used kokuji, used in the fundamental verb, included in elementary texts and on the JLPT N5.
- こ ko, used in the fundamental verb
- にお nio, used in common verb
- はたけ hatake "field of crops"
- せん sen, "gland"
- とうげ tōge "mountain pass"
- わく waku, "frame"
- へい hei, "wall"
- しぼ shibo, "to squeeze" ;
- さかき sakaki "tree, genus Cleyera"
- つじ tsuji "crossroads, street"
- もんめ monme
- しつけ shitsuke "training, rearing "