What the frick, Japan??
I know it’s probably not entirely Japan’s fault…but I’m just getting my head around に, にち, ひ, か and now じつ is being thrown at me??
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Welcome to the wonderful world of Kanji lmao
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I know what you mean. Wait until you come across 上 and 下 and, especially, 生.
The more common a kanji is, the more likely it is to have a lot of readings. If you truly want a real answer to why, take a look at the history of the written Japanese language. 
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while there are some kanji with a lot of readings, the vast majority seems to have 2. That does not answer your question, but i hope it alleviates some frustration.
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Just think of it as different words being written with the same kanji. So instead of having to learn 5 kanji you only need to learn 1 
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It is like the letter “a” in English. It has a lot of different pronunciations depending of the word. Something similar happens with kanjis.
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thankfully, most kanji don’t have that many readings. but as the ones which have lots of readings are also some of the most common kanji, one learns them early…
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This is some funny shit
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That is so true lol Kanji has too many readings. However, it’s better than English because ya know, English has too many grammar things you have to memorize…
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I certainly remember feeling this way not too long ago haha. Don’t worry, before long you’ll just get it somehow. I don’t know exactly when it happened for me, but it’s no longer so much of a struggle. It’ll get natural in time.
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I think that’s what happens when you try to fit an existing spoken language into an existing written language.
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Thankfully only about 6 or 7 of these are important to know. So while that’s still a lot, it’s not quite as terrifying as it seems.
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I count 10 that I feel like I’ve seen fairly often in reading, or maybe that’s just my Anki bias (see them in one book and then see the cards often).
Ooh…I like that logic!
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I counted 生きる, 生む, 生もの, 一生, 先生, 芝生, and 誕生 when I made that post.
Some of the others are indeed not rare words, but the “important to know” tier is what I mentioned there, I feel. For a “good to know, but not a huge deal if you have to look them up” tier, I’d put 生える, 生糸, 生憎, and maybe 生い立ち?
And “good luck on the Kanken” tier I’d have 生粋, 生業, and 平生.
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but “a” is always spelled the same…(unless you’re including “an”)
This is what I meant: the first a in “always” is not pronounced the same as the a in “same”.
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nooooooo