Why do are so many kanji (not vocab) こう？
Actually, the most common reading for WK kanji is しょう.
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Because etymology!
Also, しょう
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It’s not #1. I believe that goes to しょう.
But the reason is because Japanese borrowed these from Chinese which also has tones. Depending on the version of Chinese, you could have 4, or 5, or more versions of こう (keeping in mind that こう is a Japanese representation of an ancient Chinese pronunciation that is likely different from today’s). Japanese dropped the tones, and many of these just became the same thing.
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This is simply adorable. 
@plantron @Belthazar and @Leebo are clearly of one mind on this! All posted about the same time.
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Because Koichi planned it this way so he could be in all the mnemonics
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Yes, but the one who deserves the real credit is @rfindley for having calculated the frequency of all kanji readings on WK.
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Yeah Koichi is the one responsible for this .
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600 AD
Japanese Sailor: “So, how do you read this kanji?”
Chinese Sailor: “Oh, it’s *makes sound of cat choking on a fishbone*”
Japanese Sailor: “Sounded like こう to me. What about this kanji?”
Chinese Sailor: “*Makes sound of a pregnant gazebo*”
Japanese Sailor: “こう, eh? I’m great at this!”
Chinese Sailor: “Whatever.”
Long story short.
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In stories, having recurrent characters is important in getting the audience to establish an emotional connection with the story, through the characters. Kochi knew this, and so he made everything revolve around a few characters (himself, Mrs Chou, Hard Gay, the Shogun, Charlie Sheen, etc). I think he was hoping for a nomination for the New York Times Bestsellers list, but I don’t know why he went through the trouble of making up a country and a language just to tell his story- wait, what were we talking about?
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Tolkien did, though I’m fairly sure he didn’t do it to get on the bestsellers list. I mean, he did anyway, but you know how that is.
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It’s all a conspiracy, he’s really thousands of years old and he influenced Japanese this way just so when the Internet came around he would be able to make wanikani.
No one believes me but I know the real truth!
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It got to be that way due to a lot of 交渉 with the Chinese, but eventually it was the 好尚 among scholars in Japan, and then everyone had to learn by 口誦, until everyone understood from the 工匠 to the 公娼, and from there it’s been passed down to us by 口承.
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I’m having trouble imagining those sounds. Would you mind demonstrating for us?
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