Kanji characters from 1 to 10. こわくないよ。(They’re not scary)

Japanese schoolchildren study around 2,000 kanji (Chinese characters). While that may sound terrifying, most of these kanji are quite rare.

It’s the first 100 kanji that are really important. Roughly 40% of the kanji in a newspaper/magazine article are from the first 100 kanji. If you are confident with the first 100, you have taken a big step to reading real Japanese - and are ready for the N5 exam.

100 might still sound a lot. But you don’t need to be able to write them. Reading and recognising is the first step.

Numbers are a good place to start.

Once you can read 1-10, you can start reading and writing dates. Just add the character for moon/month 月 and the character for sun/day 日

Below is my guide to how to remember 1-10.

１．　一　　One stroke of the pen, or you can think of this kanji as one pointed finger. 　　

２．　二 Two strokes, or two pointed fingers.

３．　三 Three strokes or three pointed fingers (note the middle stroke is slightly shorter)

４．　四 Clenched fist with thumb tucked in. The four fingers are the vertical strokes.

５．　五 Can you see the figure of 5 in the character? You can make this character with 5 matchsticks.

６．　六 This looks like the kanji for 8 八 with a lid 亠. The lid 亠 is 2 strokes. 8 minus 2 = 6.

７．　七 Seven conveniently looks like the hiragana せ (SE) and the katakana セ (SE)

８．　八 Looks like the katakana ハ　(HA). HA is the first part of the sound for eight in Japanese, HACHI.

９．　九 Looks like the katakana カ (KA). Nine in Japanese is KYUU or KU.

１０．　十 Ten looks a little like the katakana ト (TO).

Today’s date is 五月十八日　GO-GATSU JUU-HACHI-NICHI (May 18th)

What important day in Brighton is this? 八月六日 　　（Answer at bottom）

If you would like to test your understanding, I have made a matching activity on Wordwall for these numbers. It’s free to use. Please give it a try. Click here to play.

I will finish with a number idiom: 七転び八起き　NANAKOROBI YAOKI. Can you see the two numbers in this idiom?

七転び NANAKOROBI means to fall down 7 times.

八起き YAOKI means to get up 8 times.

The meaning of this inspiring idiom is ‘don’t give up’, ‘keep going until you succeed’.

ANSWER: 八月六日 HACHIGATSU MUIKA (August 6th - the first day of the Pride festival)