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.

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?!)

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

疋（ひき）

Meaning: bolt of cloth, head count

My hack: I agree with Heisig that this looks like 正 (correct), with a little flourish on the end. (He calls it “mending.”) I like to remember it with 足 since that one is easier to remember since it has such a clear visual.

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.

艹（くさかんむり）

Meaning: grass

My hack: The horizontal line is the ground, and the 2 vertical lines are blades of grass. It’s a sparse lawn.

Variations: 艸 艹 䒑

NOTE: when you see this radical in any character, you can be pretty sure that you are looking at some kind of plant.

化（ば・ける、ば・かす、カ、ケ）

Meaning:change

Components: 亻(person), 匕 (spoon)

My hack: I remember spoon as a side view of a baby since that is what it looks like to me, so for this one I think of a spoon-fed baby and a person and how quickly one changes from one to the other.

匕（さじのひ）

Meaning: spoon

My hack: To me this looks like a baby sitting on the floor with arms reaching up. Maybe he’s waiting for someone to feed him with a spoon.

見（み・る、み・える、み・せる、ケン）

Meaning: see

Components: 目 (eye), 儿(legs)

My hack: I like to think of the legs as making the eye work (making it into a verb), meaning to see.

OR

My grandma used to say “keep your eyes out on sticks” when looking for something. That’s similar to “see.”