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Japanese can be written in three ways – kanji, hiragana and katakana.
On this website, I introduce the kanji and words that are the foundation of the Japanese language. Many kanji are derived from “kanji pictures” that represent the feelings of the ancient people that created them. Each kanji has a story behind it.The strong desire of ancient people to communicate and share their feelings turned the drawings into written characters: kanji. It is fascinating to me that each individual kanji has its own meaning. I hope to share with you the stories of how kanji came to be.


For over 20 years, she has offered seminars with audiences ranging in size from small groups to over a thousand participants.
These seminars focus on Japanese and East Asian culture, as well as kanji and language.

If you would like to learn more about customized lectures, please contact us here.

-Shizu Usami was licensed by Dr.Shirakawa a leading expert in this field -
She joined the Nihon Moji Bunka Kikou of Kyoto, Japan. At this institute, she studied the history and culture of the written word in eastern Asia, under world-renowned kanji grammatologist and recipient of the Order of Culture, Dr. S. Shirakawa. In 2004, she became the youngest person to be certified by the institute to teach Shirakawa Grammatology, on which modern kanji education in eastern Asia is based.