The modern Japanese script was derived from Chinese characters which since then have evolved into a logographic writing technique. The kanji script today as we understand stands for Japanese writing style which originally has been adopted from Chinese symbols. If you translate the kanji script you will find Hans character from which it was developed.
It is important to understand how the kanji script originally developed in China finally came to be regarded as Japanese script. The articles which were imported by Japan from China in ancient times had the Hans characters on them from which kanji were developed.
The history bears evidence to this fact from many examples such as the Han dynasty ruler had presented a gold seal with Hans' inscription to the Japanese. What we still wonder is that how and when the Hans characters were started to be used in Japan and developed.
What probably may have happened was that the Chinese immigrants in Japan must have been the first people to be using the Kanji script. It would have been absolutely impossible for the Japanese themselves to understand it and learn the script on their own.
The political connections between China and Japan goes back a long way and such a boding required a volume of paperwork which was required to go to and fro from one country to the other. In Japan they set up a committee called Fuhito who were entrusted with the duty to learn Chinese language so that they could read the documents. This perhaps made way for the Chinese Kanji script to be accepted developed in Japan.
Chinese Kanji script brought the idea of formal writing script in Japan which did not have one at that time. They began to use Chinese script for writing initially and slowly shaped their own writing system with things taken from the Chinese script and then reshaping them to fit the Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they began to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing style and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese further developed the script and introduced phonetics to the Chinese symbols they were using whereas in China the symbols did not have any kind of phonetic.
Kanji script though taken more or less as Japanese is used more frequently in China than in Japan. People also believe that the Kanji script of both the countries look almost the same. In reality the Japanese and Chinese Kanji script has lot of difference as Chinese Kanji symbols are shaped differently.
The reading method of the Kanji script in both China and Japan are also different. In China this script is treated exclusively as symbols and as such has no phonetic value where as in Japan it is read according to their phonetics as we have already discussed.
It is important to understand how the kanji script originally developed in China finally came to be regarded as Japanese script. The articles which were imported by Japan from China in ancient times had the Hans characters on them from which kanji were developed.
The history bears evidence to this fact from many examples such as the Han dynasty ruler had presented a gold seal with Hans' inscription to the Japanese. What we still wonder is that how and when the Hans characters were started to be used in Japan and developed.
What probably may have happened was that the Chinese immigrants in Japan must have been the first people to be using the Kanji script. It would have been absolutely impossible for the Japanese themselves to understand it and learn the script on their own.
The political connections between China and Japan goes back a long way and such a boding required a volume of paperwork which was required to go to and fro from one country to the other. In Japan they set up a committee called Fuhito who were entrusted with the duty to learn Chinese language so that they could read the documents. This perhaps made way for the Chinese Kanji script to be accepted developed in Japan.
Chinese Kanji script brought the idea of formal writing script in Japan which did not have one at that time. They began to use Chinese script for writing initially and slowly shaped their own writing system with things taken from the Chinese script and then reshaping them to fit the Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they began to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing style and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese further developed the script and introduced phonetics to the Chinese symbols they were using whereas in China the symbols did not have any kind of phonetic.
Kanji script though taken more or less as Japanese is used more frequently in China than in Japan. People also believe that the Kanji script of both the countries look almost the same. In reality the Japanese and Chinese Kanji script has lot of difference as Chinese Kanji symbols are shaped differently.
The reading method of the Kanji script in both China and Japan are also different. In China this script is treated exclusively as symbols and as such has no phonetic value where as in Japan it is read according to their phonetics as we have already discussed.
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