These adorable clips and characters will help you memorise kanji symbols and make you smile at the same time.

Kanji is often considered one of the hardest things for students of the Japanese language to master. With thousands of characters commonly used in everyday life, memorising the Japanese language system adopted from China can be a daunting challenge for even the most diligent of pupils, so anything that helps to brighten up the task and make it a little more exciting is always a welcome distraction.

A new Instagram account set up by Tokyo animator Ayako Hiroki is making news for doing exactly that, as it includes a series of stop-motion videos that showcase a variety of different kanji characters with cute, endearing and memorable scenes.

Called “Kanjigram”, the short videos in the collection began appearing online at the end of June, with the first clip paying homage to the character 字 (“azana”/”aza”/”ji”), which makes up the second half of the word “kanji” (漢字).

▼ The clever animation splits the character into its two parts, or radicals,
showing a child (子) throwing a roof (宀) over its head.

▼ Next up is the kanji for “tree” (木).

▼ Seeds are used to create the kanji for “seed” (種).

One of the most adorable clips in the collection is this one, which depicts an umeboshi pickled plum hobbling over to a rice ball with his walking stick, before throwing himself onto it to create the word “plum” (梅).

▼ Another cute clip pays homage to the kanji for “violet” (紫).

▼ While this one helps us remember the kanji for “half” (半).

The video for the word “peach” (桃) draws on the legend of “Momotaro” or “Peach Boy” for its design, with the hero and his animal friends defeating the monster at the end of the clip, just as they do in the Japanese myth.

“Summer” (夏) features some warm-weather motifs, like a blow-up paper goldfish and octopus, to help cool you down while you study.

▼ There’s also a beautiful depiction of time (時) in the collection.

Having just appeared online less than a month ago, there are plenty more kanji and videos to come, so be sure to follow the account if you want to keep expanding on your Japanese skills.

In the meantime, if you need more inspiration to help memorise all the different kanji characters, you might want to take a look at this new book, which helps you learn kanji with the magical power of poop!

Source: Net Lab
Featured image: Instagram/kanjigram_a