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Posted: 2024-02-16, Tags: joy-o-kanji kanji
We've bundled 16 more Joy o' Kanji essays to show you the connections between kanji. Bundles 15 and 16 largely focus on water. The first collection presents the pleasures of bathing outdoors, the history of bathhouses, and the nuts and bolts of bathtub terms. Bundle 16 looks at the relationship between mounded-up earth (e.g., embankments and ridges in fields) and the water below (e.g., moats and flooded rice fields). Bundles 17 and 18 focus on intricate systems. The former introduces the way people have conceptually divided the hours in a day. The latter bundle examines hard-working animals that produce items that have boosted the Japanese economy.
15
In Hot Water
栓 槽 岡 呂
Bathing in Japan could mean communing with nature, following rigid procedures in a bathhouse, or soaking in water that other relatives have used. These essays cover all situations. They introduce practical terms for "bathtub," "turning on a faucet," and "overflowing." You'll learn where people bathed before owning bathtubs. You'll see how, in bathhouses, smaller, raised pools and larger pools below floor level respectively represent land and sea. You'll learn which "bathtub" term the Japanese associate with empty basins versus full pools at hot springs. And you'll discover how bathing has connected to religion, family bonds, prostitution, and a famous thief.
16
Corduroy Landforms
畝 堤 畔 堀
The Japanese have long corrugated the earth, mounding and trenching it with grand plans. Embankments (堤) rise above rivers to prevent floods. Dug-out moats (堀), whether empty or full, contrast with higher bordering land for castle defense. An agricultural field features ridges (畝) and furrows, with plants in raised areas, irrigation in "valleys." A footpath is just high enough above a flooded rice field (畔) that 畔also represents "causeway, a raised road across low or wet ground." See how the Japanese have gone to great lengths to create "corduroy" landforms.
17
Windows of Time
午 更 宵 旦
Rock around the clock with these four kanji. They might seem to represent mere points in a 24-hour stretch. But as 午 appears in terms for "morning" and "afternoon," it applies to a large chunk of the day. Then 宵 takes over, generally meaning "early evening" but also sometimes "evening." We find 更 in terms for the ancient Chinese system of night watches that ran from about 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Night ends with dawn (旦). These multipurpose kanji also symbolize parts of the year, from New Year's (旦) to late autumn (更).
18
Intricate Systems
繭 桑 巣 蜂
These essays detail complex, interdependent systems, both natural and economic. Sericulture was once so essential to Japan's economy that mulberry (桑) fields are marked on maps, as silkworms eat only mulberry leaves. These animals laboriously spin cocoons (繭), producing filaments that become silk kimonos after many financial transactions. Similarly, Japanese apiarists oversee busy bees (蜂) that make not only hives and honeycomb but also honey to be sold and consumed in multiple ways. Animals build intricate nests and webs (both 巣) that inspire terrific Japanese figurative language. People even eat some nests!
Thematic Bundles are available for purchase at the discounted price of $8. (Four essays would normally cost $12.) You can also access bundles with essay credits, which are allocated as part of joint Kanshudo + Joy o' Kanji subscriptions.
Joy o' Kanji essays are a great way to deepen your insight into specific kanji, and bundles will introduce you to new connections and more profound meanings. Try a Thematic Bundle today!

Posted: 2024-01-30, Tags: joy-o-kanji kanji
We recently introduced Thematic Bundles, which enable you to make connections that you might otherwise miss among groups of Joy o' Kanji essays. We're back with a new bundle o' bundles! By reading Bundles 11 through 14, you can engage deeply with the natural world, from fruit trees and flowers to the hills of Japan, as well as with delicious foods from the fields and seas.
11
Flower Power
菊 丹 梗 藤
In this bouquet of essays, flowers represent far more than beauty. Those showcased here (including the Chinese bellflower of the 梗 essay and the tree peony of the 丹 essay) symbolize everything from the emperor, nobility, and wealth to honor, love, and feminine beauty. The Japanese also associate some of these flowers with hardiness or with grief. People celebrate them in family crests, at festivals, with dolls, and in a range of artistic creations. Supposedly, the flowers even confer health benefits—curing headaches, cooling and invigorating the blood, and removing phlegm.
12
Favorite Foods
芋 寿 麺 拉
Sushi comes in infinite varieties (as the 寿 essay shows). Noodles can take many forms and be made from a multitude of flours (as the 麺 and 拉 essays demonstrate). Sweet potatoes differ by region (as the 芋 essay makes clear). In Japan these favorite foods inspire not only cravings but also deep passion, nostalgia, arguments over origin stories, and hairsplitting about the preparation methods particular to certain locales. People also have strong beliefs about these dishes, eating certain noodles for longevity, treating sweet potatoes as guilty pleasures, and regarding uncut sushi as lucky.
13
Fruit Basket
桑 桃 梅 柿
This "fruit basket" has caused creative juices to flow in Japan. The trees and fruits connect to colors, haiku, proverbs, myths, folktales, and wordplay. People associate peaches with Shangri-la and instability, Japanese apricots with happiness, and persimmons with Mount Fuji and writing brushes. The Japanese fully use certain trees—the wood in furniture, the leaves in tea (and even in sushi!), and fruit, roots, and bark in dye, paper, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The juice goes into drinks, alcoholic or tame. And the Japanese and ancient Chinese have viewed these fruits and their trees as warding off misfortune!
14
Ups and Downs
凹 丘 凸 岡
This essay collection about hilly topography focuses in part on the physical world: bumpy surfaces, volcanic cones, lens curvature, embossed paper, and especially flat abs! But such topics are also rich in figurative possibilities. One essay first examines objects that stand apart from the rest, then demonstrates how being separated from the main action affords a clear vantage point. That essay also touches on unrequited love. Another illuminates how it feels to be overwhelmed and slightly depressed. A third addresses the ups and downs of life. Uneven ground proves to be fertile!
Thematic Bundles are available for purchase at the discounted price of $8. (Four essays would normally cost $12.) You can also access bundles with essay credits, which are allocated as part of joint Kanshudo + Joy o' Kanji subscriptions.
Joy o' Kanji essays are a great way to deepen your insight into specific kanji, and bundles will introduce you to new connections and more profound meanings. Try a Thematic Bundle today!

Posted: 2023-12-08, Tags: sales offers
It's holiday season, and time to celebrate with a fantastic bargain: 50% off one year of Kanshudo Pro access!
2023 has been an exciting year for Kanshudo: we've added lots of new content to some of our core programs, including 20 Topic Lessons, 38 Joy o' Kanji Essays, 24 articles in the Grammar Library, and nearly 1000 example sentences. We've also added two very exciting new features - AI Sentence Correct which provides specific feedback and improvement suggestions for Japanese sentences you enter, and Thematic Bundles, which are linked sets of four in-depth kanji essays.
Take advantage of this very special holiday offer now: Give me 50% off!
Set yourself up for Japanese success in 2024. Kanshudo is the most effective way to learn Japanese:
Kanshudo will help you master kanji, hiragana, and katakana, along with Japanese grammar and vocabulary, as fast, effectively, and enjoyably as possible! Kanshudo is used by over 170,000 Japanese learners, with proven results. Act now and get Pro access for less than 10 cents per day!
Take advantage of this very special holiday offer now: Give me 50% off!

Posted: 2023-12-07, Tags: joy-o-kanji kanji
We are very excited to announce a new way to access in-depth kanji information: Thematic Bundles, from our partner Joy o' Kanji!
Thematic Bundles are sets of four kanji essays with a common theme. Just as a strong bond between two people produces a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts, the same applies to thoughtfully grouped kanji essays. Considering thematically related essays in one fell swoop enables you to make connections that you might otherwise miss. It illuminates the particular context for each individual essay and creates a structure for your kanji studies. Rather than casting about aimlessly for your next interesting read, you can now proceed systematically. In addition to adding new essays each week, we will be adding new bundles every month or so - a "flavor of the month."
  • If color captures your imagination, start with Bundle 1 - Color Me Surprised! Here you can find four color kanji, each of which provides a different set of larger related meanings.
  • If you're interested in the odd tipple, try Bundle 4 - Steeped in Saké. Learn about Japan's most famous drink, and various ways to measure and present it.
Thematic Bundles are available for purchase at the discounted price of $8. (Four essays would normally cost $12.) You can also access bundles with essay credits, which are allocated as part of joint Kanshudo + Joy o' Kanji subscriptions.
Joy o' Kanji essays are a great way to deepen your insight into specific kanji, and bundles will introduce you to new connections and more profound meanings. Try a Thematic Bundle today!

Posted: 2023-09-30, Tags: updates whatsnew topics jok
It's been a while since we've posted an update as we've been busy working on some very exciting new features! We will have more to share over the next few weeks, but in the near future we will be bringing you three major new improvements to Kanshudo:
  1. Some amazing AI-powered interactive features which will add a whole new dimension to your Japanese studies
  2. 'Thematic Bundles' from our partner Joy o' Kanji which will group and cross-reference kanji in ways that will make them much more meaningful. The first bundle will add 'color' to your studies (quite literally ...)
  3. A new JLPT-focused section of Kanshudo to help and support students for the JLPT
In the meantime, we've made many updates and improvements. A quick summary follows below, but first we'd like to highlight a very special milestone: Joy o' Kanji's essay on 徹 marks the 500th essay! While that means there are still 1636 to go (!), 500 in-depth, visually appealing and linguistically intriguing explorations of 500 kanji is a huge achievement. We're especially excited that the new Thematic Bundles will bring the essays to even more kanji students. Congratulations to Joy o' Kanji's founder, Eve Kushner!
Here's a summary of updates since our last post:
25 new Joy o' Kanji essays:
7 new Topic Lessons:
Holidays by Tsunomaki Watame NEW!
UPPER INTERMEDIATE
Hay fever Season
UPPER INTERMEDIATE
はなみ
花見
INTERMEDIATE
ころ vs ごろ vs ぐらい/くらい
UPPER BEGINNER
Summer in Japan 1
UPPER BEGINNER
Summer in Japan 2
UPPER BEGINNER
ほんまつてんとう
本末転倒
UPPER INTERMEDIATE
13 new grammar points:
Additionally, we made updates to 23 grammar points - you can find the most recent here.
We also added 588 new example sentences and updated another 299!

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