Extra information about the current kanji. This may include:
Frequency
The 2,501 most-used characters have a ranking which expresses the relative frequency of occurrence of a character in modern Japanese. The data is based on an analysis of word frequencies in the Mainichi Shimbun over 4 years by Alexandre Girardi.
Note:
- these frequencies are biased towards words and kanji used in newspaper articles
- the relative frequencies for the last few hundred kanji so graded is quite imprecise
Dictionary indexes
Index number for the current kanji in several published Japanese dictionaries or reference kanji books.
Query codes
These codes contain information relating to the glyph, and can be use for finding a required kanji.
SKIP
The System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP) is a scheme for the classification and rapid retrieval of Chinese characters on the basis of geometrical patterns. Developed by Jack Halpern, it first appeared in the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Kenkyusha, Tokyo 1990; NTC, Chicago 1993), and in successor publications such as the "Kanji Learners Dictionary" (Kodansha 1999,2011) and the "Kodansha Kanji Dictionary" (2013). A description of the coding system is available.
As examples, 割 has a SKIP code of 1-10-2, indicating it is divided into left-right portions with 10 strokes at the left and 2 at the right. 度 has a SKIP code of 3-3-6 indicating it has a 3-stroke enclosure with 6 strokes inside it.
The descriptor codes for The Kanji Dictionary (Tuttle1996)
The descriptor codes for The Kanji Dictionary (Tuttle 1996) by Spahn and Hadamitzky. They are in the form nxnn.n, e.g. 3k11.2, where the kanji has 3 strokes in the identifying radical, it is radical "k" in the SH classification system, there are 11 other strokes, and it is the 2nd kanji in the 3k11 sequence.
Four Corner
The Four Corner coding system was invented by Wang Chen in 1928, it has since then been widely used in dictionaries in China and Japan for classifying kanji and hanzi. In China, it is losing popularity in favour of Pinyin ordering. Some Japanese dictionaries, such as the Morohashi Daikanwajiten have a Four Corner Index. An overview of the coding system is available. In some cases a character may have two of these codes, as it can be a little ambiguous, and Morohashi has some kanji coded differently from their traditional Chinese codes. The coding system indexes characters according to the shapes at the corners.
De Roo Codes
The De Roo codes were developed by Father Joseph De Roo, and published in his book "2001 Kanji" (Bonjinsha). They are based on the shapes observed at the top and bottom of the character. A detailed description is available.
As an example, 亜 has a code of 3273 indicating that the top of the kanji is pattern number 32 (兀) and the bottom pattern number 73 (horizontal line with two vertical strokes above it.
### Encodings
The code of the character in the various character set standards. This may include some of the following:
Some text in this section has been extracted from the Kanjidic project
English
