wherefore, a reason
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
It is Japanese. It usually shows up when the kanji stands alone or is followed by hiragana.
The order matters: it is what makes handwriting come out legible, and it is how dictionaries index the character.
Visual decomposition, for recognising and comparing — not always the character's origin.
Where it appears is highlighted — the translation doesn't always make that visible.
でも、一つだけ変わりません。いつも笑う理由を見つけます。
Demo, hitotsu dake kawarimasen. Itsumo warau riyuu o mitsukemasu.
But one thing never changes: I always find a reason to laugh.
そうして二人は出発しました——ケンタはおばあちゃんがもうすべて手配していたなんて、知る由もありませんでした。
Soushite futari wa shuppatsu shimashita — Kenta wa obaachan ga mou subete tehai shite ita nante, shiru yoshi mo arimasen deshita.
And off they went — Kenta with no idea his grandma already had it all arranged.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-09-07 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0