Kanji Clinic #41, The Japan Times, August 7, 2003
“Are animal kanji facing extinction in Japan?”
Two letters from readers inspired today’s column. Dario, aged 16, a beginning kanji learner in Croatia, wrote: “My Japanese pen pal told me that she doesn’t learn kanji for many common plants and animals like “rose” or “giraffe” at school. I think there must be roses and giraffes (at least in zoos) in Japan. Don’t the Japanese learn how to write the kanji for those things?!”
George, an American living in Japan who is an advanced kanji learner, sent
this e-mail: “It seems to me that the addiction the Japanese have to katakana
is leading them to deprive themselves of beautiful kanji characters. Perhaps
the most egregious examples of perfectly good kanji being replaced with
katakana--I call them ‘kanji cop-outs’-- come from the animal kingdom.
These can include general-use animal kanji like 猫 (cat) and 鯨 (whale)
and sometimes, shockingly, even simple kanji like 犬 (dog).
“Two years ago while enjoying an afternoon at a Tokyo zoo, I was struck
by the fact that the management used ゾウ (katakana) instead of 象 to
indicate the elephant exhibit. I was chagrined that a Japanese zoo, of
all places, would fail to take the opportunity to help visitors, especially
young people, make connections between the wide array of animal life and
their kanji representations. Why not put the animal names in kanji with
furigana (hiragana printed above the kanji to indicate their pronunciations)?”
Thank you, George and Dario, for inspiring me to investigate exactly how
many animal kanji Japanese youngsters learn in school. In the first grade,
they make friends with 犬 (dog), 貝 (shellfish), and 虫 (insect). Four
more follow in the second grade (牛 cow, 魚 fish, 馬 horse, and 鳥 bird),
but only three more critter kanji (羊 sheep, 象 elephant, and 蚕 silkworm)
raise their heads in the ensuing four grades. Junior high school students,
who are introduced to all of the 1,945 general-use kanji before graduation,
learn to read and write 猿 (monkey), 豚 (pig), 猫 (cat), 蛍 (firefly),
鶏 (chicken), 鯨 (whale), 蚊 (mosquito), and 蛇 (snake). This brings their
kanji menagerie to a mere 18 creatures.
In addition to the above, many Japanese are able to read a limited number
of other animal kanji normally written in katakana. These may include such
cherished members of the Japanese animal kingdom as carp 鯉, cranes 鶴,
butterflies 蝶, and raccoon dogs (tanuki) 狸, as well as some relatively unpopular ones like pigeons 鳩, crows
鴉(or 烏), and ants 蟻.
Virtually every widely known member of the animal kingdom--including creatures
on land and in the sea and air -- can be represented with a single Sino-Japanese
character, or a pair [海豚 (sea-pig) is “dolphin” and 百足(hundred-legs)
is “centipede,” for example], but the majority are rarely seen in their
kanji form. Some non-general-use animal kanji do regularly appear in place
and personal names (e.g.: 亀 turtle, 熊 bear, 鹿 deer) and on menus (e.g.:
鮭 salmon, 海老 shrimp, and 蟹 crab). Incidentally, most of the 12 animals
of the Chinese zodiac require special kanji, as seen on Japanese New Year’s
cards (e.g.: 午 horse, 申 monkey, 戌 dog).
Kanji learners like Dario who are just beginning to delve into kanji zoology might want to master the following components: (The first three are kanji in their own right).
虫 (insect): Look for it in 蚊 mosquito, 蛍 firefly, 蜂 bee, 蛇 snake and 蛙 frog.
魚 (fish): Seen in scores of fish-kanji (check out charts in seafood restaurants), as well as in 鰐 alligator and 鮨, one of the ways to write “sushi.”
鳥 (bird): Appears in many feathered friend kanji: 鶏 chicken, 鳩 pigeon,
鶴 crane, 鷹 hawk, and others. (鳥 differs from “烏 crow” by just one
stroke.)
(“beast”): Left-side component of 猫 cat, 猿 monkey, 狸 raccoon dog,
and 猪 wild boar.
Animal kanji can be found in Japan in novels, ads, menus, on signboards, maps, etc., and so it would be incorrect to say they are extinct. Still, they are glaringly absent from many magazines as well as major newspapers: The latter have a general policy of using katakana in place of animal kanji, even for the 18 learned by Japanese school children.
So when it comes to giraffes (kirin), Dario, you are far more likely to encounter キリン than 麒麟 in Japan.
These two eye-popping kanji can also represent another “kirin,” however:
a mythical Chinese dragon. You will find that dragon pictured-- along with
麒麟-- all over the archipelago on cans and bottles of Kirin Beer.
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Do you know the Chinese zodiac animal sign corresponding to your birth year?
(Note: The animal as it is normally written in kanji appears in parenthesis).
nezumi 子 rat (鼠)
1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
ushi 丑 ox (牛)
1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009
tora 寅 tiger (虎)
1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
usagi 卯 rabbit (兎)
1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
tatsu 辰 dragon (辰, 竜, 龍)
1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
hebi 巳 snake (蛇)
1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
uma 午 horse (馬)
1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
hitsuji 未 sheep (羊)
1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
saru 申 monkey (猿)
1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
tori 酉 cock (鳥)
1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
inu 戌 dog (犬)
1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
inoshishi 亥 boar (猪)
1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
Have you read the latest Reader Response?