Kokuji

Common card · No. 497949

In Japanese, kokuji (国字; "national characters") or wasei kanji (和製漢字; "Japanese-made kanji") are kanji created in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Like most Chinese characters, they are primarily formed by combining existing characters—though using combinations that are not used in Chinese. Since kokuji are generally devised for existing native words, they usually only have native kun readings. However, they occasionally also have a Chinese on reading derived from a related kanji, such as 働 (dō, 'work'), which takes its on pronunciation from 動 (dō, 'move'). In rare cases, a kokuji may only have an on reading, such as 腺 (sen, 'gland'), which was derived from 泉 (sen, 'spring, fountain') for use in medical terminology. The majority of kokuji are semantic compounds, meaning that they are composed of two (or more) characters with relevant meanings. For example, 働 ('work') is composed of 亻('person' radical) plus 動 ('move'). This is in contrast to Chinese kanji, which are overwhelmingly...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jobrz0405, CC BY-SA 4.0