My favourite one is 鼠, because the radical 臼 means a mortar. So ever since, a rat/mouse is a mortar with legs and a tail in Japanese haha
I’m a big fan of 災, 我, and 鏡!
災 just looks exactly like a disaster. It’s, like… a thunderstorm, a volcano, and an earthquake all at once. The vibes are immaculate.
I’m a fan of 我 because despite not really representing a physical thing it stuck in my head instantly. I remember われ as a first-person pronoun precisely because I heard it was pretty archaic, and I like archaic things!
鏡 is a favourite of mine because to me it looks like someone looking into a piece of metal, which is what a 鏡 is at the end of the day. It’s also complex enough to look like more than a super-elementary simple kanji, but is actually totally trivial to remember, so it’s good for the ego too
I don’t mix them up per se, but I can never get the stroke order right. For some reason, they both require you draw the bit at the top-left in a different order, despite looking visually identical in most fonts
For meaning, I usually just remember that the one for right looks more ‘open’, and most people are right-handed, so that’s the hand that’s usually open and doing stuff. It may not actually make any logical sense, but if it works…
Mmm, though I suspect unless you’re doing calligraphy you can get away with getting it wrong My mnemonic for these was that the first and third strokes of the kanji are always in the same direction. This works for almost all the kanji with that radical, though I think there’s one uncommon one that’s backwards for some reason.
幽 looks a bit like a black metal logo.
Every kanji with the 鬼 radical is fun. 塊魂! Also the WK-favorite obscure word 魑魅魍魎 is just a beautiful string of kanji.
I remember first one i liked was 藤 because of 鬼滅の刃.
But now i started to like the kanji for old numbers 壱弐惨肆etc…
I love 虫. It’s the cutest kanji!
You may like this anime studio logo that uses it and makes it even more bug-like then:
(It was sort of the precursor to Madhouse, Shaft, Kyoani and Sunrise, among others)
Oooo! It’s amazing how in Japan, everything that’s cute needs to be made CUTER and CUTER.
That’s a seriously good use of 虫。 I love how they gave it little eyes and a かわいい face!
My favourite kanji is aesthetic, easy to write and remember:
東 - east
Kun’yomi ひがし
On’yomi トウ
Most people would first think of the 東宝 entertainment company logo they see at the beginning of Japanese movies, but not me.
I really like the fantasy genre and my favorite fictional world is 幻想郷 from the 東方 game series.
The main reason why I love Touhou are the numerous doujins (fan circles) from manga, fan-animations, comics, games… to music arrangements!
You’ve heard of Bad Apple!! and the iconic animation… right?!
Last year at Reddit’s r/place, while countries were struggling to keep a flag clean, Touhou fans (with the help of Osu!) coordinated a whole video animation and it was amazing XD
Just look at it yourself!
月 (Tsuki) is my favorite kanji, because it means moon. I really love this kanji because its easy to remember, and pretty to draw.
鬱
melancholy
I really like this one. It summarizes everyday adult life.
How about 蟲? It’s got three of them.
琉
リュウ、 ル
It means “precious gem” or “lapis lazuli”, and it’s used in 琉球, the Ryukyu chain of islands which include Okinawa.
I chose it for my hanko which I sign artwork with.
So it would be the artwork that ル made.
True - but the overall effect is less cute somehow. The top one in particular looks kind of sinister.
So we can settle in the middle : there is also 䖵 …
As for my own favourite, it is 柳
なぜ?
なぜその漢字?
僕の名前んだよ
Can i cheat and have two? these two make a word : 凸凹: でこぼこ: unevenness.
They look so striking together don’t they.
And of course, 凹凸: おうとつ: unevenness
I’ve seen Japanese struggle to remember which is which
From 参 onwards there tends to be other meanings/readings of the 大字 as well. Some of my favorites I’ve seen are 捌 ける (捌 is 8), 伍 する (伍 is also probably the most unchanged one), and 肆 .