[For Seniors] Perfect for Dementia Prevention! Jumbled Kanji Quiz

“sun/day” + “person” + “gate” =

What word can be formed using “日” (sun/day), “人” (person), and “門” (gate)? The answer is a two-character word, and the second character is a kanji that has the gate radical (門構え).

The answer was “human” (ningen).

If, when you saw 「門」, you had thought to combine it with 「日」, you might have arrived at the answer quickly.

For problems like this, I think the proper approach is to spot the radical as early as possible and use it as a clue to consider various patterns.

If the respondent seems to be struggling, please provide helpful hints.

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Hane Keisuke

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“求” + “里” + “王” + “予” = “御” (the character formed by combining these parts; read as 'go' or 'o' in Japanese)

In this puzzle, the key to finding the answer is whether you can form the correct kanji using “里.”

You can form two kanji by combining the parts given in the problem with ‘里’: one is ‘理’ and the other is ‘野’.

If we consider the case of '理', the remaining parts, '求' and '予', don’t seem to form proper kanji when combined.

However, if we use the 'no' pattern, combining '求' and '王' gives '球', which leads to the answer '野球' (baseball).

When there are many possible kanji you can form like this, it broadens the scope of thinking and increases the difficulty.

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"言" + "頁" + "川" + "周" =

It’s a two-character word made up of four parts: “言” (speech), “頁” (page), “川” (river), and “周” (circumference).

Can you figure out the answer? The hint is that the key lies in how “頁” is used.

The correct answer is “順調” (smooth/going well), formed by combining “川” with “貢” and “言” with “周.” While “頁” by itself is the kanji for “page,” as a radical it’s called “おおがい” (oogai).

もしそれに気づいて「川」と組み合わせれば、答えにたどり着けたはずです。

The important thing is to identify how to use the distinctive part among the components given in the puzzle.

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Hane Keisuke

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“village” + “tongue” + “speech” + “stand” =

This puzzle has many distinctive parts like “里” and “舌” that seem like good clues to consider. If we set aside “言,” which looks like it could be a radical, and look for characters we can form by combining what remains with “立,” we get “童” by pairing it with “里.” Then the remaining “言” and “舌” make “話,” leading us to the answer “童話” (fairy tale).

もちろん、私が説明した方法ではなく、まず「話」を見つけることから始めることもできます。

It’s the kind of problem where the answer seems to emerge as you gaze at it.

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Hane Keisuke

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“sword” + “tree/wood” + “tree/wood” + “horn/angle” + “altar/show” + “cow/ox” =

‘Sword,’ ‘tree,’ ‘tree,’ ‘horn,’ ‘altar,’ and ‘cow’—six components with relatively many strokes lined up make this look like a tough puzzle.

Since these combine into a two-character word, we can expect each character to have a considerable number of strokes.

The hint is that ‘horn’ and ‘altar’ each serve as the radical of one character.

That leads to the answer: “解禁” (lifting a ban).

In 解, the right side of the character is divided into an upper and a lower part, and in 禁, the upper part of the radical is divided into left and right.

It was a problem that required a flexible mental image of kanji structural patterns to solve correctly.

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Hane Keisuke

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“mouth” + “heart” + “blade” + “arrow” + “speech” =

If we go with the standard approach and focus on an easy-to-understand radical, I think “言” would be a good candidate, but there are so many kanji with the ‘gonben’ radical, and among the pieces in this puzzle, not many really fit, right? So, shifting perspective a bit and looking at the components listed in the problem, you can spot “知” from “矢” and “口.” Once you get that far, among the remaining parts, “言” serves as the gonben, and “刃” plus “心” makes “忍,” and combining those two gives you “認.” So the answer is “認知” (ninchi, meaning “cognition”).

It was a bit of a tricky puzzle, wasn’t it?

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Hane Keisuke

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“color” + “mouth” + “mouth” + “mouth” + “thread” =

This one might be confusing because it has so many parts.

Besides “color” and “thread,” it notably includes three instances of the character for “mouth.” The hint is that if you combine the three “mouth” characters into the single kanji 品… the answer is 絶品 (zeppin, “exquisite” or “superb”).

Because the parts in the puzzle are arranged out of order, many people may not be able to form the character 絶 at first.

If you give the hint to combine the three “mouth” characters into 品, more people will likely get it right.

It was a problem that required being aware that there are kanji like 品, not just ones made of a left-hand radical and a right-hand component.

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Hane Keisuke

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