検索, pronounced kensaku, means "search" or "retrieval" in Japanese. This project aims to make it easier for Japanese learners to find information about kanji, radicals, and vocabulary. It does this by bundling data from the Unicode Consortium and the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group into an SQLite database with an accompanying CLI tool.
Follow the instructions here to install the Chocolatey package manager. Then run the following command:
choco install -y --version 0.1.0 kensakuNote
The Chocolatey package is currently being reviewed by moderators. If you want to install it before the package is approved, you need to explicitly specify the version number with --version 0.1.0.
Follow the instructions here to install the .NET 9 runtime. Then run the following commands:
wget https://github.com/LiteracyFanatic/kensaku/releases/download/latest/kensaku.deb
sudo apt install -y ./kensaku.debFollow the instructions here to install the .NET 9 runtime. Then run the following commands:
wget https://github.com/LiteracyFanatic/kensaku/releases/latest/download/kensaku.deb
sudo apt install -y ./kensaku.debwget https://github.com/LiteracyFanatic/kensaku/releases/latest/download/kensaku.rpm
sudo dnf install -y ./kensaku.rpmyay -S kensaku-binDownload the database and executable for your platform from the latest release. Set the KENSAKU_DB_PATH environment variable to the path of the kensaku.db file.
Let's start simple by asking kensaku to define itself: kensaku word 検索.
検索 【けんさく】
noun (common) (futsuumeishi), noun or participle which takes the aux. verb suru, transitive verb
1. looking up (e.g. a word in a dictionary); search (e.g. on the Internet); retrieval (of information); reference
This is a relatively short one, but many entries will have multiple meanings with notes, cross-references, and other forms of the word using different kanji. Speaking of kanji, let's see what kensaku can tell us about 賀: kensaku kanji 賀.
Kanji: 賀
Meanings: congratulations, joy
Readings:
Kun:
On: ガ
Nanori: か, のり, よし, より
Grade: 4
Stroke Count: 12
Frequency: 1056
Key Radical: Kangxi radical 154 贝 (shellfish, clam, shell)
Radicals: 儿力口土目贝貝ハノ
Variants:
References:
index 4501 - Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary edited by Andrew Nelson
index 5790 - The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary edited by John Haig
index 2599 - New Japanese-English Character Dictionary edited by Jack Halpern
index 3212 - Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (2nd Ed. of the NJECD) edited by Jack Halpern
index 1663 - Kanji Learners Dictionary Kodansha) edited by Jack Halpern
index 2253 - Kanji Learners Dictionary (Kodansha), 2nd edition (2013) edited by Jack Halpern
index 868 - Remembering The Kanji by James Heisig
index 933 - Remembering The Kanji, Sixth Ed. by James Heisig
index 778 - A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage (Gakken)
index 1756 - Japanese Names by P.G. O'Neill
index 615 - Essential Kanji by P.G. O'Neill
index 36725, page 742, volume 10 - Daikanwajiten compiled by Morohashi
index 630 - A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters by Kenneth G. Henshall
index 756 - Kanji and Kana by Spahn and Hadamitzky
index 769 - Kanji and Kana by Spahn and Hadamitzky (2011 edition)
index 565 - A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese edited by Florence Sakade
index 1780 - Japanese Kanji Flashcards by Max Hodges and Tomoko Okazaki (Series 1)
index 660 - A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese 3rd edition, edited by Henshall, Seeley and De Groot
index 751 - Tuttle Kanji Cards compiled by Alexander Kask
index 1019 - Kanji in Context by Nishiguchi and Kono
index 1728 - Kodansha Compact Kanji Guide
index 877 - Les Kanjis dans la tete adapted from Heisig to French by Yves Maniette
Character Codes:
SKIP: 2-5-7
SH: 7b5.10
Four Corner: 4680.6
DeRoo: 1661
Codepoints:
Unicode: 8cc0
JIS X 0208: 1-18-76Where kensaku really shines is when you need to look up a kanji from an image, video, or paper book that you can't copy and paste. OCR can be hit or miss depending on the image quality and font. Most of the time, the fastest way to find a kanji is to specify the number of strokes and some of the radicals it contains. For example to find 賀, you might try kensaku kanji --radicals 力 貝 --strokes 12.
This works well when the radicals in question are also a single kanji word that you know the pronunciation of. If you don't know how to type it directly though, most software will force you to scan a table of radicals to find the one you're looking for. This can be a slow and frustrating process. kensaku aims to make this easier by allowing you to refer to radicals by their commonly used mnemonics. For example, you can search for 賀 by typing power and shellfish instead and you'll get the same result as the previous query. Both the names used by the used by Unicode and WaniKani are supported. kensaku kanji --radicals power shellfish --strokes 12
Another problem that you may run in to is that many radicals are actually composed of multiple simpler radicals. Some software won't return the correct results if you use the subradicals instead of the composite radical. kensaku automatically expands composite radicals so that they also match when you search for their subradicals. kensaku also tries hard to do the right thing when given a radical-like character that isn't technically speaking a true radical. Finally, kensaku will transparently handle equivalent ideographs, characters that look the same but have different Unicode codepoints, such as ⼀ (U+2F00) and 一 (U+4E00).
Sometimes it can be hard to tell exactly how many strokes a kanji has. In these cases, you can tell kensaku to be a bit more forgiving by using the --include-stroke-miscounts flag. Or you can specify a range using --min-strokes and --max-strokes.
If you happen to know the reading or meaning you can use the corresponding flags to filter the results as well. The --common-only flag will limit the search to only the 2,500 most common kanji. For those familiar with more traditional methods of kanji lookup, SKIP, SH, Four Corner, and De Roo codes are also supported.
One last useful trick is to use the --pattern flag to "fill in the blank" when you come across a word with a single unknown kanji. For example, if you come across the word 祝賀, and know how to type 祝 but not 賀, you can search for it using kensaku kanji --radicals power shellfish --pattern 祝_
Kensaku can be used from .NET as a library or from a shell script using --format json. The examples directory contains a script that can be used to generate Anki cards for studying vocabulary. The script takes a list of words as input and outputs a CSV file that can be imported into Anki. There is also an accompanying script that can be used to extract a list of vocabulary words ordered by frequency from an EPUB file. Pandoc is required to extract the text from the EPUB file and MeCab is required to tokenize the text.
Q: Why does the output look wrong? I see blank squares or question marks instead of kanji.
A: Make sure you are using a font that supports Japanese characters. On Windows you may need to add the following line to your PowerShell profile:
[console]::InputEncoding = [console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new()If you don't want to modify your profile or need to work with cmd.exe, you can instead do the following:
- Run
intl.cpl. - Click the Administrative tab.
- Click the Change system locale button.
- Check the "Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" checkbox.
- Reboot.
kensaku is made available under the terms of the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
kensaku uses the CJKRadicals.txt, DerivedName.txt, and EquivalentUnifiedIdeograph.txt Unicode Data Files. These files are the property of the Unicode Consortium (https://www.unicode.org/), and are used in conformance with the Consortium's license (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt).
kensaku uses the JMdict, Kanjidic2, JMnedict, and Radkfile dictionary files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (https://www.edrdg.org/), and are used in conformance with the Group's licence (https://www.edrdg.org/edrdg/licence.html).
See NugetLicenses.txt for a list of NuGet packages used by the CLI tool and their licenses.