Read japanese today.pdf

Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, inc.

of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan

with editorial offices at

Suido 1 -chome, 2-6, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 69-12078

International Standard Book No. 0-8048-0496-6

First printing, 1969

Thirty-ninth printing, 1989

Printed in Japan

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................. 6

SECTION ONE • INTRODUCTORY ......... 7

What is Japanese writing?

How the characters were constructed

How Japan borrowed the

characters from China

How to use this book

SECTION TWO • TEXT ................. . 2 5

300 characters, each pre-

sented with its pictorial or-

igin, modern meaning, main

pronunciations and several

examples of how it is used

APPENDIX I • Some simplified characters ........ .153

APPENDIX II • The KANA .................. -155

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to Professors Takahashi Makoto, Uehara Akira

and Liu Kang-Shih for their assistance in preparing this man-

uscript, and to Boye De Mente and Frank Hudachek for their

invaluable editorial suggestions. I also wish to thank the Asia

House for the research grant which made this book possible.

Tokyo, Japan

1966

SECTION ONE