Hyōgai kanji

Hyōgaiji (表外字, translated to "characters from outside the table/chart"), also hyōgai kanji (表外漢字) and jōyōgai kanji (常用外漢字), are Japanese kanji outside the two major lists of Jōyō, which are taught in primary and secondary school, and Jinmeiyō, which are additional kanji that officially are allowed for use in personal names.

Because hyōgaiji is a catch-all category for "all unlisted kanji", there is no comprehensive list, nor is there a definitive count of the hyōgaiji. The highest level of the Kanji kentei (test of kanji aptitude) tests approximately 6,000 characters, of which thus 3,000 are hyōgaiji, while in principle any traditional Chinese character or newly coined variant may be used as hyōgaiji; the traditional dictionaries the Kangxi Dictionary and the 20th century Dai Kan-Wa jiten contain about 47,000 and 50,000 characters, respectively, of which thus over 40,000 would be classed as hyōgaiji or non-standard variants if used in Japanese.

Traditional and simplified forms

Kanji

Kanji (漢字; Japanese pronunciation: [kandʑi]  listen), or kan'ji, are the adopted logographic Chinese characters (hànzì) that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana. The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters literally means "Han characters" and is written using the same characters as the Chinese word hànzì.

History

Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China. The earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57 AD. Chinese coins from the first century AD have been found in Yayoi-period archaeological sites. However, the Japanese of that era probably had no comprehension of the script, and would remain illiterate until the fifth century AD. According to the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, a semi-legendary scholar called Wani (王仁) was dispatched to Japan by the Kingdom of Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters.

Kanji (disambiguation)

Kanji can refer to any of the following:

Kanji (era)

Kanji (寛治) was a Japanese era (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Ōtoku and before Kahō. This period spanned the years from April 1087 through December 1094. The reigning emperor was Emperor Horikawa-tennō (堀河天皇).

Change of era

Events of the Kanji era