Can you believe that turtles had a say in the development of the Japanese writing system?

Kanji (漢字) is one of the three scripts used in the Japanese language. They are Chinese characters that were first introduced to Japan in the 5th century. Kanji are ideograms, meaning that each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word, such as water (水), fire (火), and home (家). 　 

It is believed that in China, around 2000BC, people needed to ask questions about life to the heavens. How did they ask these questions? Not by praying or looking up to the sky. Instead, they would take turtle shells or animal bones and burn them. When a turtle shell or animal bone is burned, cracks form in the shell/bone. These cracks were then analysed and written down as symbols, and by comparing them to real-life objects meanings were attributed to each of them. These turtle shell symbols eventually developed into the Kanji writing system we see in modern Chinese and Japanese culture. 

The Japanese Club has been learning the meanings of popular Kanji characters such as Person, Rain, Love, Spirit, Thunder, and Peace. Students then created some “Kanji Art”. Kanji Art takes a Kanji character and either decorates it or completely redesigns it so that it looks like the meaning it represents. Please enjoy viewing some of the creations from members of the Japanese Club - can you tell the meaning of each Kanji based purely on its design? 

Learning kanji can be a long and difficult process, but each character has a story behind it. This is the beauty of written Japanese.

Kind regards,
Ms Tooby
Classroom Teacher