The contemporary Japanese script was derived from Chinese characters which since then have evolved into a logographic writing style. The kanji script today as we understand stands for Japanese writing style which actually has been adopted from Chinese symbols. If you translate the kanji script you will find Hans character from which it was developed.
How come the Kanji script today belongs to Japan if it had its origin in China? The whole thing was the result of the trade followed by the two countries where Japan would import Chinese articles with Hans script labeled on them.
You may find number of examples such as the then Han dynasty monarch had presented a gold seal to the Japanese with Hans inscription. What we still don't know is that how and when the Hans script was adopted and controlled by the Japanese.
The most probable story is that the first people to make use of the Chinese Kanji script symbols in Japan were actually Chinese immigrants. Otherwise the Japanese had no real means of understanding or comprehending and even learning the Chinese script.
The political ties 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 council 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.
When Chinese Kanji script came to Japan there was nothing like formal writing system existing in the country. originally the Japanese started writing with the Chinese script itself but steadily they started developing a script of their own with the aid of the Kanji script which would be compatible with Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they started to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing style and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese additionally 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.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one thing that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look similar but they are structurally quite dissimilar.
There is one more difference in Chinese and Japanese Kanji script when we apply it to the reading part. As discussed the Chinese treat the Kanji characters as symbols without any phonetic suggestion but in Japanese script every syllable has phonetic value.
How come the Kanji script today belongs to Japan if it had its origin in China? The whole thing was the result of the trade followed by the two countries where Japan would import Chinese articles with Hans script labeled on them.
You may find number of examples such as the then Han dynasty monarch had presented a gold seal to the Japanese with Hans inscription. What we still don't know is that how and when the Hans script was adopted and controlled by the Japanese.
The most probable story is that the first people to make use of the Chinese Kanji script symbols in Japan were actually Chinese immigrants. Otherwise the Japanese had no real means of understanding or comprehending and even learning the Chinese script.
The political ties 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 council 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.
When Chinese Kanji script came to Japan there was nothing like formal writing system existing in the country. originally the Japanese started writing with the Chinese script itself but steadily they started developing a script of their own with the aid of the Kanji script which would be compatible with Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they started to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing style and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese additionally 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.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one thing that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look similar but they are structurally quite dissimilar.
There is one more difference in Chinese and Japanese Kanji script when we apply it to the reading part. As discussed the Chinese treat the Kanji characters as symbols without any phonetic suggestion but in Japanese script every syllable has phonetic value.
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Chinese kanji signs are beautiful and used in a variety of different contexts. If you would like to learn more about ancient Chinese characters please follow the links.
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