A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters
"This book is nothing less than an etymological kanji dictionary of all 2000+ joyo (everyday use) kanji! FOr each kanji character, it presents its history in brief, references it to associated characters, tells its story of how it has evolved into its current form, and also its readings (both kun and on readings) and three example words/compound words written using the character. Of all the Japanese learning–related books I own, this one is by far the one I've gotten the most out of. I heartily recommend this one! —Squidoo.com"…I use it every single day, and have done for almost a year now. It is the most brilliant reference book ever for learning kanji. I use this in conjunction with a phone app for Android, Obenkyo. I use the app to learn how to write each kanji, and to study them. I consult this book daily to learn the Why of each kanji, and to figure out how to remember them. There is a story to each kanji--and when you know the story it is much easier to remember each kanji. To find a kanji, you look it up by the readings in the back. If you get one book to learn kanji, this is the one you should get." —Goodreads