止（と·める、と·まる、シ）

Meaning: to stop

My hack: I can’t claim credit for this one. (I learned this from a book called Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, which has about 1000 mnemonics if you’re interested in seeing some other memorization ideas.)

The first stroke (the longer vertical line) is a police officer, and the little horizontal stroke is his arm out to signal traffic to stop. The third stroke is a child waiting to cross the street, and the final stroke is the ground.

This character is on the cover of the book:

Kanji Pict-O-Graphix

Note: Just in case anyone is suspicious, I have no affiliation with the author of this book and I am not being paid to plug it. I’m just putting it out there as an option for anyone who is interested. For more details on this book and others, check out my reviews.

丶（てん）

Meaning: dot, drop

My hack: it’s not much of a hack, but it does look like a droplet of water, or a bead of sweat in a cartoon kind of way.

Photo by emrank

unknown source

冂（えんがまえ）

Meaning: same

My hack: I like to think of this as a little enclosure, like a fence. You draw an enclosure around things that are the same; so the sheep are in this pen, pigs in another, cows in another….

金（かね、かな‐、キン、コン）

Meaning: gold

Components: 𠆢 (roof), 干 (to dry)

My hack:   ( Grr. These radicals are the hardest ones, and you can’t just skip them because they show up EVERYWHERE.)

I try to think of this as a gold mine, where the first 2 strokes are the roof, the next 3 strokes are something like a jack hammer, the two dot-like strokes are sparks, and the last is the ground. I’m sure this has absolutely no relation to how gold is actually produced, but it makes a nice visual stimulus.

𠆢 (やね)

Meaning: roof

My hack: not much need for one, since it looks like a roof. Think of a park pavilion.

音（おと、ね、オン、イン）

Meaning: sound

Components: 立 (stand), 日 (day, sun)

My hack: If you had to stand on the sun, I’m pretty sure you’d make a sound (if only for a nanosecond).

草（くさ、ソウ）

Meaning: grass

Components: 艹(grass), 早 (early)

My hack: You should water your grass early (it’s better for the environment, you know).

OR

Grass (poking up through the snow) is an early sign of spring.

Any other ideas?

雨（あめ、あま‐、ウ）

Meaning: rain

My hack: This looks a lot like rain on a window to me. The first stroke is the curtain rod above the window, or maybe the top of the window. Strokes 2-4 outline the window panes, and the last 4 strokes are the drops of rain on the window.

Remember this one well, because it’s the radical for all sorts of kanji having to do with weather.

穴（あな、ケツ）

Meaning: hole, opening

Components: 宀 (no meaning), 八 (eight) or katakana ハ

My hack: What sound would come out of your mouth if you fell in a hole? “Uwha?!” (ウハ?!)

工（コウ、ク）

Meaning: craft, construction

My hack: it looks like the side view of an I-beam.

学（まな・ぶ、ガク）

Meaning: study, learning

Components: Something close to ツ, 冖 (cover), 子 (child)

• Heisig refers to the combination of the first 5 strokes as “school house.”

My hack: You know how books lean one way or the other when you put them on a bookshelf? I imagine the first three strokes as books. And when a child has to study, s/he is covered in books.

You can also remember “school house” that way, because where else would you be covered in books?

冖（わかんむり）

Meaning: cover

My hack: it looks like a cross section of a box lid.

林（はやし、リン）

Meaning: woods, grove

Components: 木 (tree)

My hack: One tree is just a tree, 2 trees are a grove/woods.

車（くるま、シャ）

Meaning: car

My hack: This looks like a bird’s eye view of a chariot, which was the car of its day I suppose.

Photo by joaquinuy

足（あし、た・りる、た・る、た・す、ソク）

Meaning: leg/foot, enough

Components: 口 (mouth), and it looks a lot like 疋 (bolt of cloth)

My hack: To me, this really looks like a cartoon of a person running (“fleet of foot“). That 6th stroke could also remind you of an oversized foot.

赤（あか、あか・らむ、セキ、シャク）

Meaning: red

Components: 土 (earth, dirt), 刂(sword)

My hack: In Hawaii there is that red dirt, and not even a sword can get those spots (the last 2 strokes) out of your clothes.

刀（かたな、トウ）

Meaning: sword

My hack: Some took a sword and cut off the power (as in 力).

Other versions: 刂

This actually looks a lot more like a sword than the main version. Go figure.

森（もり、シン）

Meaning: forest

Components: 木 (tree)

My hack: Oo, I loves me the easy ones. One tree is a tree. 2 trees are a grove. 3 trees are a forest. Basta.

貝（かい）

Meaning: shell

Components: 目 (eye), and something close to 八 (eight) or the katakana ハ.

My hack: I remember this one visually, with the horizontal lines representing the lines in the shell. The 2 final strokes are the little “legs” that stick out of the shell, or alternatively they can be water being squirted out of the shell.

花（はな、カ）

Meaning: flower

Components: 艹(grass), 化 (change)

My hack: A flower is a kind of plant, so we have to have 艹, and flowers change more quickly than any other plants (i.e. the blooms die).

OR

the 化 part could be a person on the left, and another person on the right on his/her knees holding a bouquet of flowers behind his/her back.