Kanji symbols today

Chinese characters were born thousands of years ago as pictograms or pictures of essential things and basic actions.

Oracle bones were the first media ancient Chinese used for their inscriptions.

No one uses the beautiful Egyptian hieroglyphics or the ancient Mesopotamia Sumerian script. Chinese, however, have kept their amazing characters for thousands of years until now.

Japanese adopted Chinese characters from China in the 5th century. We in the West know them as kanji, kanji symbols, and Japanese kanji.

Everybody seems to love the Chinese or Japanese kanji symbols. Everybody seems to have a favorite kanji symbol, a preferred Chinese character.

Therefore, I asked master calligrapher Nadja Van Ghelue to brush popular kanji calligraphies that could be used as designs for apparel, prints, greeting cards and more.

Click for expressive kanji symbols

© Núria Roig