Welcome to the most challenging — and rewarding — course Manga University has ever offered. We’re going to take you deep inside the world of yojijukugo, four-kanji expressions that make up some of the best-known and loved Japanese idioms. These include gems like "kill two birds with one stone," "time is money" and many more!

"A brilliant idea!" says Professor Ronald A. Morse of the Japan Studies Department at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. "Japanese kanji—the written symbols adapted from Chinese—were originally drawings of images from real life. Japanese comic books and cartoons now provide fresh images to help us learn. Kanji de Manga uses today's manga images to make the kanji learning process fun and easy for otaku of all ages. This is a brilliant approach to learning the language."

Features 80 Japanese idioms, each accompanied by a full english explanation, kanji breakdown, example sentence, and a charming and original manga drawing by Chihiro Hattori.

Created by Glenn Kardy, editor of several volumes in the popular How to Draw Manga series, including Getting Started, the first book of its kind to be used at major universities in the United States (UCLA) and Japan (Waseda). Artwork by Chihiro Hattori, niece of legendary manga artist Eichi Fukui. Features a foreword by Tomonori Morikawa, Professor of International Studies at Waseda University, Tokyo.

Important: Use of this book requires knowledge of hiragana and katakana, the Japanese phonetic alphabets, which are taught in the book Kana de Manga. If you don't already know how to read and write kana, we recommend you start with that book first.

Learn more at the Kanji de Manga homepage!