Page 20 - Japanese Character Writing for Dummies

however. A little over ten percent of jōyōkanji fall into this category. These kanji serve as funda-
mental constituents in many other kanji. Here are some examples of pictographs.
Mountain

Tree

Moon

Simple ideographs

Some kanji express abstract concepts such as numbers and locations. They are called 指示文字 shi-
jimoji, which means “letters to indicate.” Here are some examples.

The horizontal lines in kanji show the base line. For example, the kanji for “above” has lines above
the horizontal line, while the kanji for “below” has lines under the horizontal line. The last exam-
ple indicates “three” by drawing three lines.

Compound ideographs

The kanji created by combining two or more simple kanji are called 会意文字 kaiimoji (combined
meanings). Here are some examples.

14 Japanese Character Writing For Dummies