漢字の練習

[tōkai devotee]

Hi all! I've just started calligraphy (Shodo) classes and have been given a load if information from the sensei and it's all in Japanese. So, I'm trying to review some Kanji and in doing so, I think it'd be really helpful to know what the various radicals mean and about their origins etc. I learned all this a million years ago when I first started learning Japanese, but have since forgotten it. Where can I find such information? I've looked at various websites and they don't go into the detail about the radicals.

Thanks in advance!

[becki_kanou]

I've always really liked Henshall's "Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters". It gives a short etymological summary for each character explaining the whys and wherefores of how the radicals fit together, and includes a short mnemonic as well. It doesn't include stroke order for individual characters so far as I remember (I seem to have mislaid my copy somewhere) but it does have a general stroke order guide in the index.

[tōkai devotee]

ありがとう、ベッキ－さん!
It looks like a good book. It could be exactly what I'm looking for. It's available at my local library so I'm going to check it out - and check it out!!
I think I'm pretty much ok with stroke order so it doesn't matter if the book doesn't include this. My Shoudo sensei will help me with this though.