Page 48 - Japanese Character Writing for Dummies

tree When you say ki, it means “tree.” When you see this kanji in a compound
word, you can guess that the word is somehow related to trees. For

BOKU, MOKU/ example, mokume means “wood grain.” shinboku (literally
god tree) is a tree that is typically found in a Shinto shrine and is consid-
ki, ko ered sacred. This kanji is also used for mokuyōbi (Thursday).

Radical: 木 Number of strokes: four

When you say ima, that means “now.” A useful sentence, 今、何時です
か。Ima nanji desu ka, means “What time is it now?” When you write
now this kanji, you start from the top of the kanji and draw two nice, flow-

ing lines, first to the left, and then to the right. The combination of the
two kanji, “now” 今 and “day” 日, gives two new words, with different
KON,KIN/ima pronunciations and meanings. 今日Kyō is “today” but 今日konnichi is
“nowadays.” And 今日はkon’nichiwa is “hello.”

Radical: 人 Number of strokes: four

42 Japanese Character Writing For Dummies