Kanken Level 1 kanji that don’t exist in words?

4 comments

1. I’ve never taken the Kanken, but one of a few things may be at play:

   – these kanji are so rarely used that they aren’t used in print all that often

   – they are alternate forms of existing kanji; if this is the case, they’re most likely 旧字体

   – they are kanji which are just no longer used because their usage were co-opted by other kanji

2. The digital 日本国語大辞典 has these two words with 孛:

   はい‐せい【孛星】
   〘名〙 箒星ほうきぼしの異称。〔文明本節用集（室町中）〕 〔釈名−釈天〕

   and

   ひころ・う (ひころふ)【孛】
   〘自ハ四〙 語義未詳。「ひ」は「日」、「ころ」は「もころ（如）」で彗星の光芒が日光のようである意とも、「日凝る」で光が集まっている意とも、「ひろごれり」の変化したものともいう。
   ＊書紀（720）天武一三年一一月（北野本訓）
   「是の月に、星有りて中央なかに孛ヒコロヘり。昴星もうしゃうと双びて行く。月尽に及りて失せぬ」
   補注「孛」は、彗星の光が四方に放射する意。

   These are the only two dictionary entries I found. You can tell this is not really a kanji for modern times.

   Additionally, not in the dictionary, but 孛国 is the Kingdom of Prussia. (Also a thing of the past.)

3. I’ve taken up to Kanken level 3 and currently studying for level 2. If you look up rarer kanji in normal dictionaries you probably won’t find any words for them. Some of them are alternate forms of more common kanji or an older way of writing, and some are just old and not used anymore.

   u/efugeni passed Kanken level 1 3 times and has been really helpful everytime I have interacted with him here and on other websites. He also has a Yotube channel and a website with a lot of information about Kanken. He can answer this question better than anyone else.

4. https://i.imgur.com/J5xjRqU.jpeg
   You should be looking at the 大漢和辞典. It has quite a few words using this kanji: 孛吉, 孛菫, 孛相, 孛如, 孛慧, 孛星, 孛然, 孛迭, 孛禿, 孛孛, 孛孛丁菜, 孛羅, 孛老, 孛魯, 孛婁, 孛轆, 孛兒速, 孛術魯, 孛蘭奚, 孛羅帖木兒

   Though I’m not sure whether this is tested in the Kanken at all.