I have been doing a bit of etymological study over on http://www.kanjinetworks.com/index.cfm lately. The idea is that doing a little reading about etymology (the historical origins of the kanji) can provide some insight that helps you understand why a particular kanji is put together the way it is, and hence make the kanji easier to remember.

Of course, this kind of research isn’t always fruitful, and sometimes the information you find raises more questions than it answers. Also, the site doesn’t explain very well where its information comes from, so some of the information might just be educated guesswork. In any case, I think the information is useful enough to merit a writeup.

One historical fact about kanji that is sometimes useful is that certain kanji are formed in a particular way from a pair of two components. One is related to the meaning, and the other is related to the reading.

For example, consider the words ご飯　（ごはん） and 販売　（はんばい）. In these words the first kanji is composed of two parts, and the right part is the same. Also, the reading of the first kanji is the same. That is not a coincidence. The kanji were put together that way on purpose. This particular example is special because that right-hand component is also a common kanji in its own right, and gets used in the word 反対　（はんたい） for example.

Another useful historical fact is that some kanji components have a common historical “ancestor”, so they are cousins of sorts. In certain cases, this information can be useful when combined with other sorts of information.

For example, note the faint visual similarity between the pair of vertical lines at the top of 花 (flower) and the slanted lines at the top of the kanji in 咲く (to blossom). Apparently the top parts of these kanji are both derived from the old kanji 艸, which is a doubled form of a pictograph representing small plants.

Also note the common “夭” component shared between 笑う (to laugh) and 咲く. Finally, note what looks like a small version of 口 (mouth) on the left side of 咲く. These facts, taken together, suggest a striking mnemonic: “a blossom is a plant’s mouth laughing.”

But is that just a bit of mnemonic fiction, or does it have any possible etymological significance? Well apparently there is an ancient Chinese poem that goes:

鳥鳴花咲　(birds sing, flowers smile)

It is my understanding that in the real poem the 咲 character was actually some historical variant which originally meant smile or laugh. The poem playfully suggests the analogy “鳴 is to 鳥 as 咲 is to 花”. And this type of usage is what gives 咲く its meaning in modern Japanese.

It is a paradox of learning that adding more information sometimes makes things easier to remember. When it comes to using etymology to help study kanji, probably everyone is going to have their own opinion of how useful it is. But I think it is worth a look.