I would like first to apologize as this post might sound somewhat self-centered. inasmuch as it is about what is going on in my mind/brain when I memorize kanji.

For me many of the visually more complex kanji are easier to remember than simpler ones. However I think there are two preconditions for any complex kanji to be qualified as an 覚えやすい　kanji. Those preconditions are:

1- It must present to me a clear psychological reward before getting to memorizing. the reward is of the kind (hey if I memorize this behemoth I would feel like I had accomplished something).

2- The kanji has visual distinctness in its components. that is the different strokes and elements/components stand in different visual categories which gives the kanji more dimensions and/or sets it apart from other kanji belonging to the same family.
An excellent candidate is　繊.
The first unusual aspect of this kanji is that the element 糸　in RTK1 is often compounded with simple elements. here simplicity can mean several things such as visual simplicity or sometimes simplicity in terms of its position in RTK's memorization ladder. for example 練　線　約　綱　( the last one's second element is simple by virtue of the orthogonality of its strokes).

The second thing is that the right hand element is a strange combination of two elements that are distant in terms of their positions in RTK and in terms of directions of their strokes which in spite of being many they go in several direction that in my humble opinion inrease the detail content of the element rather than cancel each other out.
Strokes can diminish the richness of detail within a kanji if they work in two completely opposite sides of a polarity (which is usually subjective - in my case many orthogonal strokes can be monolithic if some other feature of the kanji doesn't break the monotonicity as in 畳　量　- very dull)

I know that RTK is not about visual memory, but I think it is somehow indispensable even in the context of a mnemonic method.

Finally I here are a few paradigmatic examples of good and bad kanji according to me:

Good: 繊 歳　銭　殉 　魔 (these kanji really dance)
Bad: 畳　量 　宜　但

I am really interested to hear if anybody has had such musings along his kanji memorizing journey. And sorry for the wordy post.

I find your perspective on these kanji forms very interesting.

For me, I have always enjoyed writing kanji that involve the sign of the pig
亥

I think it's a neat combination of strokes, with that gap in the middle, and it reminds me of a capacitor symbol:

JimmySeal Wrote:I find your perspective on these kanji forms very interesting.
it reminds me of a capacitor

And what about shade　陰 ?

gandal Wrote:Good: 繊 歳　銭　殉 　魔 (these kanji really dance)
Bad: 畳　量 　宜　但

I am really interested to hear if anybody has had such musings along his kanji memorizing journey. And sorry for the wordy post.

Interesting... but for me this is not really the same, except for 魔 which is rather commonm and 銭, I would say that none of the kanji on the the top line were that easy...
i can
I think this has a lot to do with how distinctive the primitives are in your mind and on the 'story'.

BTW, I've computed a few statistics about this some time ago, there was a post about that -- i looked at that data, and kanji 歳,殉,魔,畳,量 are easier than comparable ones in terms of the number of stokes, frequency and such, and 繊,殉,宜 and especially 但 are harder.

leosmith Wrote:

JimmySeal Wrote:I find your perspective on these kanji forms very interesting.
it reminds me of a capacitor

And what about shade　陰 ?

I've always been intimidated by that character, since before I started RTK, although I now realize very easily that it only contains 3 simple primitives. And now that you mention it, it is very cool looking and looks like two capacitors in series in some crazy man's circuit diagram.

But the other thing I like about 亥 is that it's so simple to write, yet interesting looking. You almost can't write it in a way that doesn't look good (much unlike, as Heisig mentioned, the kanji 女).

JimmySeal Wrote:I find your perspective on these kanji forms very interesting.

For me, I have always enjoyed writing kanji that involve the sign of the pig
亥

I think it's a neat combination of strokes, with that gap in the middle, and it reminds me of a capacitor symbol:

I enjoy writing this kanji too. And I liked very much the capacitor analogy.
However, for me this kanji is beautiful by virtue of the way it fills the space allocated for it. That is how it fills the kanji-square. I think this kanji violates the simple rules of space delineation ( the simplest ways to delineate this space can be found in kanji such as 口　田　日　and 王 ). rather than the naive delineation, this kanji invokes the form-forming capabilities of the mind (Gestalt Principle of Reification) to do the delineation for it.

It firstsignals the top of the kanji-square by the tip of the first stroke above.

the right side is signaled by the left tip of the second stroke and the two ends of the 4th and 5th strokes.

the left side is signaled by the right tip of the second stroke, the left side of the 5th stroke and the lower tip of the last stroke.

finally the bottom of the invisible kanji-square is signaled by the two ends of the two final strokes.

It does all this and leaves the rest to our brains.

Another nice feature about this kanji is that it is on the borderline between being boringly symmetrical and being unattractively asymmetrical.


all in all, this kanji poses a challenge to our perception without being trivially easy nor forbiddingly difficult.

Exactly.

gandal Wrote:all in all, this kanji poses a challenge to our perception without being trivially easy nor forbiddingly difficult.

I would say one of the things I like most about it is that it's deceptively simple, which is not so true for 陰.

I must say, however, that as much as I like this combination of strokes, I do not really like to see it alone. The vertical tendencies of this acorn make it appear bloated and unnatural when it tries to fill the whole kanji square. It demands companionship.

But as far as I can tell, this primitive is only willing to share the kanji space with one radical at a time, always side-by-side, yet it is more than willing to cede whichever side will make its friend feel at home. These are all the acorn kanji I can find:

該　咳　骸　核　垓　孩　刻　劾